


Onnagata

by Katie_65



Category: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-08
Updated: 2020-10-08
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:15:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 29,270
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26894302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katie_65/pseuds/Katie_65
Summary: Years after her return to the feudal era, Kagome falls into a new adventure with Sesshomaru where they embark on a high-stakes heist. *Added Sessmom Oneshot*
Relationships: Higurashi Kagome/Sesshoumaru
Comments: 7
Kudos: 80





	1. One

Chapter 1   
Kagome, Rin, and Sango sat along the cliff’s edge just outside of the village, each with one of Sango’s children on their laps. Others had begun taking seats as well. Miroku fluttered around from person to person recording in one of the many notebooks Kagome had brought him back when she was in middle school. Hiraikotsu and Kagome’s bow and quiver sat in the dirt beside them, an afterthought in case things got out of hand. 

Sesshoumaru’s visits and the fights that followed had become a village pastime. They no longer battled for death or vengeance, it seemed more like some weird bonding thing, Kagome mused. Everyone waged their bets with Miroku, not on a victor, rather they bet on how many times Sesshoumaru would call Inuyasha a bastard or half-breed and how many times Inuyasha would tell Sesshoumaru to shut up or miss a hit. 

Those who had an eye for battle, like Sango and Kaede, would bet on various moves each brother seemed to favor. Sango even had a favorite block/jab combo that just really got her motor running and Kagome would listen patiently while her friend practically gushed over Sesshoumaru. It was a service really, if it wasn’t her listening it would have to be Miroku, then they would fight and one thing would lead to another and they already had enough babies. 

Sesshoumaru had just entered the clearing when Rin, who had been practically vibrating up until that moment went still. Kagome felt the wrongness at the same time as his ward and they exchanged a knowing look. His energy was all over the place. Something was deeply wrong. 

They were all set up way out of attack range so Kagome had to strain to hear bits and pieces of the conversation carrying out below. 

“I am not here for you Inuyasha.” 

“... what the fuck for?” 

“My mother....” 

“You can’t have her!” 

“Move!” The crack of flesh on flesh echoed. 

Then Sesshoumaru was just there. The force of his arrival knocked Kagome back and she held the toddler in her arms tight. Rin hopped up to greet her lord. Kagome watched from her place sprawled in the dirt as he placed an affectionate hand in Rin’s hair. The girl in her arms worked her way free and Kagome stood. She was just done dusting herself off when Inuyasha skidded to a halt spraying her with more debris. 

“Back away Sesshoumaru! I told you no. If you try to take her it’ll be both your arms this time!” 

“Quiet half-breed.” Nervous villagers started to shuffle away. It was only fun to watch the brothers spar from a distance. A great distance. Sango and Miroku took their children and backed away as well, lingering near though. It wasn’t Sesshoumaru that worried them, rather it was Inuyasha’s tendency to swing wild. “You owe me Inuyasha, she does as well. I am not asking. She is my mother.” Sesshoumaru spat. 

Next to him Rin tensed, “is something wrong with Haha-ue?” He spared her a glance then turned his full attention to Kagome. 

“You have a mother?” Kagome flustered under his stare as Inuyasha took a possessive hold of her arm. 

Sesshoumaru’s brows pulled together and she could have sworn his lip twitched. “Of course.” His tone told her she was an idiot. 

“I mean she’s alive? I had just assumed...” her hand fluttered in the air as her sentence trailed off. 

“Oh yes!” Rin chirped excitedly, “Haha-ue is-“ 

“A bitch.” Inuyasha interrupted. 

Speculative conversations erupted around them while Sesshoumaru moved to deck Inuyasha, but it was Rin’s palm that met his cheek first. 

“I’ll wager she is a great beauty if Sesshoumaru is any indication.” 

“Oh so you can insinuate that Sesshoumaru is beautiful but when I do it it’s a fight, monk?” 

“What was that for brat? It’s true!” 

“You will not insult my lords mother with your filthy tongue half-breed.” 

“The western lady you say, I hear she is a great demon indeed.” 

Kagome met Sesshoumaru’s eyes and nodded. “Sit boy!” The beads were long gone, removed by her own hand when she first returned to their time. But the command still held authority and the lively commentary around them fell silent. Inuyasha ducked instinctively then shoved his hands in his sleeve with an irate grumble and a few choice words. 

“Can we have a few minutes alone?” With nods and platitudes everyone filed away from them, likely still in earshot, leaving Sesshoumaru, Kagome, and Inuyasha behind. 

“Alright, do you mind telling us what is going on?” Kagome settled on her knees and Sesshoumaru followed suit. Inuyasha plopped down at her side with his back turned, an intentional sign of disrespect and Kagome sighed. “Stop it.” She admonished under her breath but loud enough for him to hear. Sesshoumaru too by the smirk on his hard lips. 

“My mother’s energy disappeared three days ago. It took me three more days to find her palace, the energy of the Meido alone is strong enough to track her but it is gone as well. Her... companion is sealed at the gate with holy arrows. I can neither wake her nor pass the gate.” Sesshoumaru sure had a knack for getting straight to the point, Kagome thought. 

“Keh, she’s probably fine. Just off ruining lives or something.” Inuyasha grumbled. 

“Fool. The gates of heaven and the underworld are sealed shut along with its guardian. Have you any idea the implications?” 

Kagome looked between the two and hoped someone would supply her the implications. ‘Where’s Miroku when you need him,’ she thought to herself. He had always been the one who knew things like this. She did her best to study up on lore and mythology in high school but they really had gotten too many things wrong for it to have been of any use. 

“Oh! So you need me to unseal her companion?” Kagome clapped her hands together, proud of herself for figuring it out. 

Sesshoumaru’s jaw clenched, he wouldn’t ask, that much she understand. “Well,” standing she dusted herself off and shouldered her bow and quiver, “what are we waiting for?” 

She turned to Inuyasha, he shook his head. “He doesn’t want me to go.” 

Sick of being in this perpetual state of confusion she looked between the brothers. Again no answers were forthcoming. 

“I’ll be right back, I’m sure. ‘Big-brother’ won’t hurt me. Right?” Kagome looked to Sesshoumaru for confirmation. The best she got was a grunt then he was grabbing her arm and her whole body was enveloped in his energy.


	2. Two

Chapter 2 

Flying with Sesshoumaru like that was not something she looked forward to doing again. The heat of his energy was humid, almost wet. The speed was disorienting and left her feeling like maybe, for a moment, her body had been dissolved and reassembled. Shuddering, she wrapped her arms around herself and tried to wipe away the weird loss of self that burrowed in her bones. 

Taking a good look around Kagome realized they were in the sky. Clouds surrounded the palace acting as it’s crenellations. Guards stood watch at regular intervals along the stairs leading to the gates. With a second look Kagome realized they weren’t moving, they were made out of stone that gleamed opalescent in the moonlight that shone despite the fact that it was still day. 

And sure enough, against the towering gates a hulking black dog was sealed with almost half a dozen silver arrows. 

The closer Sesshoumaru got to the pinned demon the more power crackled in the ozone around them. Finally forced to stop his ascent Kagome wondered how long he had spent trying to break through with brute force. Even now she could feel the wax and wane of his power as he tested the seals. 

Kagome approached the great dog with no resistance. Her reiki rose in greeting to the power of the seal, familiar yet different. The first tug did nothing, nor did the second, or the third. “Focus.” Sesshoumaru called from behind her. Closing her eyes she breathed the way Kaede had taught her. Three in six out. She struggled to shut the world around her out but the battery of demonic energy from Sesshoumaru was too great a distraction. She tugged uselessly on the arrow again. 

“The seal is too strong.” She grumbled in defeat. 

“You are far more powerful than whoever wove this seal. Focus.” Sesshoumaru shot back, he sounded annoyed but she took the compliment and preened a little anyway. 

Closing her eyes she tried again, but it was something that he said that finally got her attention. Weave. Energy swirled behind her eyelids and she saw the blue threads that wove around the arrows like a net holding the dog down. And there, there was a frayed edge. She dove into the light of her power and pulled at the edge. The arrow snapped free in her hand and all the rest followed clattering to the ground. 

She turned to Sesshoumaru with a smile but he was no longer there and suddenly neither was she. The hard stone of one of the soldiers took the breath out of her as she was thrown back. ‘That’s going to leave a bruise’ she thought to herself. Blinking away stars she started to complain, but Sesshoumaru had taken her place in front of the revived demon. 

The black dog snarled and Sesshoumaru snarled back, but he didn’t reach for his swords. From her seat against the guard she could smell the sulfur and rot that seeped from each of the dog’s exhales. She saw death in the beast’s eyes. The exchange lasted a good minute before the dog dropped her head in a prim bow. 

Kagome stood with a groan, her back cracking like a glow stick. Sesshoumaru waited for her to catch up nodding for her to pass before the dog who snarled at her as the gates parted. “I’m the one who let you go.” She grumbled and the dog grumbled back earning a sharp look from Sesshoumaru. 

The gates parted at their assent and side by side they passed into the palace. 

Sesshoumaru paused like he was waiting for something then when nothing happened he resumed his march. 

“Now what? Is she here? Are we investigating? What are we looking for? I don’t know how much help I’ll be. I don’t sense anything.” Kagome had to jog to keep up. 

Sesshoumaru stopped again and Kagome thought maybe he was sniffing the air, because he suddenly changed direction. “She is not here. Her companion was sealed first. She did not see the assailant.” 

Kagome followed and tested the air herself, spreading her aura around in search of anything, youki, holy power, a clue. The prospect of an adventure was exciting. Since her return things had been so quiet with the exception of a few demons who attacked, but no real proper adventure. It had been nice at first, getting to know her friends without a looming threat. Getting to know Inuyasha without constantly running for their lives. But, two years had passed and she found herself growing antsy. 

She followed Sesshoumaru past a golden throne and into the palace proper. She looked in awe at the sheer amount of things that surrounded them. Each door slid open to reveal a new room of treasures. One held swords and spears and armor that made her skin crawl. Another was lined with books and scrolls that whispered to her, beckoning her to pick them up, to just run her fingers along their parchment. Sesshoumaru caught her wrist when she tried to touch one. Yet another was filled with steam that wrapped around her and caressed her skin like a lover. As they moved she realized the size of this inside was much greater than what it had been when they were outside. The halls seemed endless and without Sesshoumaru leading she would have been lost. 

Something was pulling at her senses and she paused. Sesshoumaru stopped as well. “What is it?” 

“There is something-“ he whizzed past her in the direction she turned and she was forced again into a jog to keep up. 

He kept pushing on but the feeling intensified to the left and she followed it. A door slid open and she entered a room alone. The only thing in the vast room was a single mirror held aloft by invisible ties. Kagome approached slowly, emboldened when she felt Sesshoumaru join her. The feeling off the mirror wasn’t holy or demonic, but it was oddly familiar. Her hand reached out to trace the wooden frame. Just as her fingers brushed it Sesshoumaru caught her wrist. “Don’t-“ 

The rest of his words were lost when realization hit her, the power the mirror emanated was the same as the bone-eater’s well. 

Spinning on her heel she shoved Sesshoumaru away as hard as she could before the tendrils of time could grab her. She was neither fast nor strong enough because the mirror took them both.


	3. Three

Chapter 3 

Time folded around them both and Kagome sank into the famailiar sensation even as fear reached up her throat. She could feel the scrape of Sesshoumaru’s power against her own as he struggled in the darkness. Reaching she caught hold of his hand and pulled them close to keep them from getting separated in the folds. Inuyasha, the jewel, and the tree of ages had always been her tether to their time, but now she was free falling and wasn’t willing to to take the chance that they would end up separated. 

Light surrounded them and her back hit the ground. Sesshoumaru landed on top of her. Everything about him was sharp and painful, from the armor pressing into her face, the swords jabbing her thigh, his claws against her arm, even the accusatory look in his eyes. 

“Ow!” She groaned pushing at him as the pain in her already abused back intensified. 

Sesshoumaru stood and she slowly peeled herself off the ground rubbing her lower back. “Where are we?” He asked aloud, but she knew not to her exactly. 

“When, would be a more accurate question.” She replied anyway. 

They both turned in a circle scanning the forest around them. One tree caught her eye and she approached warily, “Goshinboku” she whispered taking in the sight of the familiar tree that was hardly half the size she remembered it. Her hand rested against the trunk and the familiar aura stroked her own in mutual recognition. 

Another epiphany hit her and she ran the familiar path to the clearing that held the bone-eater’s well, or would someday, she thought, as she reached the empty field. Next she turned toward Edo, but all that met her was more woods. Woods and Sesshoumaru’s armored chest. 

“Explain.” He demanded 

Sardonic laughter escaped her at the panicked look he gave her. “Sorry sorry, that mirror must have been made from wood from the tree of ages. It took us to the past. I’m not sure how long though.” Sheepishly she scratched the back of her head and tried to look contrite. 

“Take us back.” He stepped into her space, knuckles cracking to relay the threat. 

“The well isn’t here and the mirror isn’t here. Maybe if we go find your mother’s palace again...” Kagome trailed off, obviously she was the time travel expert among them, but she was clueless. “Do you have any idea when we are? Does anything look familiar?” She watched as he stood stock still, yet somehow she knew he was testing the world around them. 

“Before I was born.” He replied gravely. 

“How old are you?” 

“Very.” Was all he deigned to reply. 

“Sesshoumaru....” 

“We are roughly 900 years in the past.” Kagome gasped. She couldn’t fathom. She wracked her brain trying to remember historical details, but she had spent most of her time studying things between the Sengoku Jaidai until her era, not the past past. She was so lost in thought that she almost missed him telling her to stay there. 

“Wait!” She cried. “You can’t leave me alone here!” Then when he continued his skyward momentum, “you have to be careful! You can’t change anything!” 

With a defeated sigh she slumped against a tree and settled in to wait. ‘This is how Rin must have felt’ she thought winching when the rough bark scraped against her bruised back. 

She tried to remember the details of that time, it would have been somewhere in the sixth or seventh century. She wondered if Buddhism had made it to the islands yet. Had Midoriko been born yet? Was higurana even used? 

The sun was getting low and Sesshoumaru hadn’t returned so she picked herself up to collect firewood and look for some kind of food. Thankful for Kaede’s lessons she foraged a good meal for herself. It wasn’t until after she had built the fire that she realized she didn’t have anything to start it. She had been spoiled with demon companions who could start fires leaving a gap in her survival skills. She rubbed sticks together and smacked some rocks to no avail. 

Giving in, before she lost the sun, she decided a trip to the stream was in order. She needed water. She longed for a bottle to hold it in, but settled instead for moving her camp closer to the stream. He had said to stay there, but wasn’t very specific about where ‘there’ was. 

The stream was exactly where she remembered it. “Small miracles” she mumbled. The day had left the water nice and warm. A quick dip wouldn’t hurt. Sniffing at her collar she realized she really did need a bath. She could wash her yukata as well, it was filthy, dirt and grass matted the back and dust from that morning covered her. Had it only been that morning when she was with her friends taking bets on the brother’s fight? 

After washing her top layer and setting it on a warm rock to dry she shed her second layer and dove into the stream. Warm water washed over, swirled around her, and cleaned her from the inside out. Wringing out her hair she tried to get a look at the bruising on her back but no matter how she turned it was too low, out of sight. Feeling rather silly spinning in circles, chasing her tail, she laughed. 

“It’s pretty bad.” A deep baritone supplied. 

Shrieking and sputtering she ducked below to the water to protect her modesty. “Inuyasha! Sit!” She cried out of instinct. 

The demon laughed from behind her. There was a rustle of fabric followed by a few metallic thuds then a splash as he joined her in the stream. How had she so thoroughly missed his presence? He was powerful, but somehow had managed evade her senses. Pivoting to face him she realized immediately how. 

Golden eyes leered at her. The ragged purple stripes on his cheeks were as familiar as his aura. Long silver hair swirled in a mixture of water and power around him. Power that was so so similar to Inuyasha’s she hadn’t even registered it. It had been a constant presence in her life for so long, her comfort, her joy, her love. Her own power answered, calming, comforting, subdued. 

‘That face’ she took her time studying him, committing the angle of his jaw, the curve of his lips, the pointed tip of his ears, to memory. Inuaysha had never seen his father, but now she was seeing him in person and if she got nothing else out of that cursed mirror she at least had this. She could describe him to Shippo to draw. She was already trying to find the words she would use, like a crime scene sketch.

He was young, around Sesshoumaru’s age, if not younger, but it was so hard to tell especially with the newfound knowledge that Sesshoumaru was very very old. He didn’t have markings on his wrist or forehead the way his elder son did. The only thing that decorated his lithe muscular body was a sprinkling of silver hair. 

So engrossed in her perusal she hadn’t realized how close he had gotten. 

“Dog demon is right, how astute. Like what you see?” He laughed running a clawed hand down his flat stomach. 

“Eep!” She squeaked throwing her arms across her breasts and dropping back below the water. 

Another demonic aura whipped against her senses and her power rose up in answer. “Oh hohoho and a priestess! What a prize!” 

Then Sesshoumaru was there pulling her back with a firm hand on her nape. He stood in the waist deep water heedless of his sopping wet silk. 

“Not for you.” He snarled at his father. 

The two demons circled each other, Sesshoumaru using one arm to steer Kagome behind him. “Get dressed.” He snarled leaving no room for argument. 

“If you’re too rough with her she’ll break.” The father taunted the son. “I can take him, say the word. Your fear is palpable Little Priestess.” He shot at her as she scrambled into her undergarment, the only dry thing she had. Both daiyoukai were on the shore now, the father hastily tying his pants into place. His top he threw to her. 

Crouching he flexed his claws in a gesture purely Inuyasha. “You don’t look familiar, what house are you from old man?” 

Kagome choked on her laughter but Sesshoumaru’s glare cut her through. Shrugging into the haori she scooped up her bow and quiver and backed a safe distance away from the fight she was sure was coming. 

“Crescent Passage  
Night Blooming Sakura   
Dragon Bane” Sesshoumaru rattled off in stanza like it was a poem. 

“Ah I’m surprised we haven’t crossed paths then, Dragon Bane huh? No matter if you are kin, you’re in the way!” The father charged, claws scraping the front of Sesshoumaru’s armor. 

They both moved too fast for Kagome to really follow. Occasionally they would slow down and she would get a glimpse, the father bodily thrown into a tree, the son skidding to a stop only to flip back into the fray.

She wondered what Sesshoumaru must be feeling. His father was always such a point of pain for him. That had been her interpretation, anyway, since the day they met in his skeleton. 

The opponents stopped for a moment, both bloody and panting. The air around Sesshoumaru was picking up. It swirled and crackled with his demonic energy. His eyes were red. 

“He finally surpassed his father in strength.” Totosai announced in memory. 

“Sesshoumaru stop!” Both sets of golden eyes shifted to her. 

“You can’t hurt him!” The father took advantage of his future son’s distraction and attacked with a technique similar but infinitely more powerful than Inuyasha’s blades of blood. Blood splattered the shore around them and Sesshoumaru was forced to one knee. 

Panting, eyes narrowed on his sire, his hand went to Bakusaiga. Tenseiga was nowhere to be seen. Green lightning danced in the air around him as the sword started to slide free of its sheath. She didn’t think he would actually kill his own father, but clearly his response was emotional. 

Muttering to herself about continuum’s and paradoxes, Kagome knocked and arrow and let it fly. Ever trusty it hit the mark, clashing with the blade. Spiritual purity ate away at the blades demonic power the same way the blade would have eaten away at his father’s if he had swung. 

“Sesshoumaru-“ her words were cut short when a slim pale arm wrapped around her shoulder covering her mouth. “Mmmmph!” 

“Mmmmmm so you are where my errant guard has been dallying.” A soft melodic voice purred in her ear. Kagome strained to get a glimpse of the demoness holding her, but all she could see was the magenta stripe on her cheek as she rested her chin on Kagome’s shoulder. “Oh, two dogs, you must be a delectable treat. I wary of men and their games though.” Both of her arms reached around Kagome and she made a series of hand gestures while murmuring in a language Kagome was unfamiliar with. Kagome watched in horror as Sesshoumaru’s body fell lifeless to the ground. 

“Hey! I had him!” The father yelled. 

“Of corse you did dear.” The demoness that Kagome was starting to think might be Sesshoumaru’s mother replied. Then in her ear she whispered, “Time to go.” 

There was a flash of light followed by the feeling of being disassembled that she was starting to grow familiar with.


	4. Four

Chapter 4

Surreal. That was the only word Kagome could find to find to describe her present predicament. Surreal. She thought for the hundredth time as she watched Sesshoumaru’s parents bicker in the firelight. 

“Humans don’t eat meat!” Sesshoumaru’s mother insisted, presenting Kagome with a handful of mushrooms. All of them poisonous. 

“Woman, I swear. They do.” Tōga argued peeling the flesh off a rabbit and offering a raw leg to Kagome which she declined with a shake of her head.

“See! She declined your meat.” 

“For now for now. Make yourself scarce and we will see if that changes.” He waggled thick brows in Kagome’s direction. 

“You are a disgusting man.” Kagome was grateful for the demoness’ presence even in the less than ideal circumstance. 

She and the demoness had arrived at the cave first. Worse than the feeling of being ripped apart or even the damp heat of their method of travel was the fact that she had no idea where they were or how far they had flown. The cave was an established camp, that much was certain. There was a trunk of overflowing silk in one corner and the remnants of a fire in the center. White fur was laid out on the dirt floor.

“Excuse my rudeness little treat but I’m going to need to tie you up.” Kagome’s protests were ignored as the demoness bound her hands with thick silk cords then her mouth. “Do not fret my love, Tōga will not touch you. I will not allow it.” 

If the crescent moon gracing her forehead was any indication she was definitely Sesshoumaru’s mother. She shared the same golden eyes and silver hair as her son. They looked almost identical, in fact, with the exception of her single cheek stripe and smaller, more feminine bone structure. 

Kagome was deposited against the rear wall of the cave where she waited as the demoness busied herself with a fire and disappearing and reappearing from the cave. 

Tōga entered just as the sun was setting with a still prone Sesshoumaru slung over his shoulder. With a grunt he unceremoniously dumped Sesshoumaru on the dirt floor. Kagome scrambled over to him, panic welling up for the first time since her abduction. Bringing her face close she was relieved to feel his soft exhales against her cheek. His neck was bent at an alarming angle, his armor making his limp body awkward.   
Kagome gathered him to her as best she could bringing his head to rest atop of folded thighs. His face was peaceful, she would have thought he was simply sleeping if not for the blood caked on his skin from wounds that were already closed over. 

“No need to fuss so, Little Treat. He only slumbers.” Then to Tōga the demoness turned, “look how she fusses over her lover. What could have possibly possessed you to assault them?” Sesshoumaru’s mother lit a long delicate pipe that she pulled from sleeve against the fire. 

“I don’t think they are lovers. I found her in a stream alone. She’s covered in bruises. And she shot at him, you saw.” Tōga took a seat next to the demoness, both blocking the mouth of the cave. Casual but strategic. 

“Love, tell, are those injuries from him?” The demoness gestured to Sesshoumaru with her pipe. Kagome frantically shook her head clutching at Sesshoumaru with her bound hands. “You fool, you never think with your head.” 

Tōga barked a laugh. “Says you, why did you take her then?” 

“Did you not feel her power? You are a terrible guard. Why did you bring him here?” She passed the pipe from her lips and Tōga took a deep inhale as he mulled over his actions. Kagome squirmed under their intense regard. 

Tōga fingered Bakusaiga at his side, “He is quite powerful as well, did you see his sword? Besides he is your kin, I figured that’s why you didn’t just kill the old man.” 

“Hn, he is isn’t he? Though he is unfamiliar. If you say a single word I will end your miserable existence, but so you know, I did try to kill him. All I could manage was stasis it seems.” 

Kagome shuddered but Tōga just laughed.

Awareness was slow to come to Sesshoumaru. His mind and body felt heavy. He was content to stay where was was, feigning sleep, for the time being. The sound of his parents bickering brought him back to his youth, filling him with nostalgia. Soft thighs cushioned his head while delicate fingers idly toyed with the hair framing his face. What harm was there is indulging himself just a little longer? 

The timber of his father’s laugh filled the cave and Sesshoumaru struggled to keep his breathing even. Mother would know the spell had broken but she hadn’t seemed inclined to react. He inhaled the sound, let it wrap around him. It had been nearly 300 years since he heard that laugh. A hundred more since his parents had been in the same room. 

What a strange nightmare he had stumbled into where his parents were younger than him. He had flown to his mother’s palace to retrieve the mirror only to find that the palace did not exist yet. His mother was only a demon still and his father uppity welp. 

He had spent hundreds of years training to divest himself of useless emotions such as sentiment. All of that washed away when he saw his father in that stream. Suddenly he was the wild, emotional beast he had been before he embarked on his path for ultimate power. Before the demise of the great and terrible dog general. 

The arguing had stopped and his mother fell silent. She knew the spell was broken and he was awake. Wresting his heavy lids open he caught a glimpse of his half-brother’s miko, bound and muzzled, warily watching his parents. Turning to his parents he found two sets of golden eyes regarding him on alert. They were both waiting to see if he would make a move, he knew. 

Slowly, carefully, he rose to sitting. Kagome squeaked disentangling her fingers from his hair. 

“Hn, powerful indeed.” His mother purred, Sesshoumaru growled in response. “Oh, frightening. No need for theatrics, it was only a nap. You look positively refreshed. No need to thank me.” She waved him off. Funny, he was more exhausted, mentally, spiritually, than he could ever remember. But Mother always had that effect on him. 

Sesshoumaru sliced through the silk binding Kagome’s wrist and mouth. Grateful, she rubbed feeling back into her jaw and hands. 

Tōga had risen into a defensive crouch, hand on Bakusaiga’s hilt. “What’s the plan then, our prisoners are free. I can take the old man but you know I can’t kill beautiful women.” 

Sesshoumaru’s mother stayed where she was, reclined in fur, smoking, savoring the thick smoke as it escaped her lips. “Don’t be so hasty dear. Look for a moment at what we have caught, the most powerful priestess I have ever encountered and a daiyoukai who’s quite possibly the second most powerful on this whole cursed island.” 

“Third.” Tōga interrupted. 

“If that is what you need to tell yourself. The smart thing would be to keep them. We could use allies.” 

“You don’t make allies by kidnapping them and holding them prisoner.” Kagome grumbled. 

The demoness laughed and the sound made Kagome shiver in the unnatural cold. “Would you prefer romancing then? Tōga you take the old man and I’ll take the girl.”

Kagome was struck with a sense of wonder watching the three of them around the fire. She couldn’t even imagine how Sesshoumaru felt. Guilt nagged at her as she realized the profoundly private nature of this moment. What it must mean to him, to see his father again, to be able to meet this version of his parents. She was a peeping-Tom sneaking uninvited glances through the window of his world. 

When she had gone through the well at 15 it was her adventure. This was his. While she had no doubt that she had some role to play she wondered if it was simply her connection to the tree of ages in bringing them here. For the remainder of their time here she would be reduced to a side character in his play. 

“You should eat.” Sesshoumaru spoke ,snapping her out of her musings, handing her a chunk of rabbit speared on a stick. 

“Ha! I told you! She does like meat.” Tōga jeered. 

“So she does. But, there is more than one way to skin a cat.” Sesshoumaru’s mother handed her thin pipe as Kagome stuck the rabbit in the fire. Her long delicately clawed fingers lingered on Kagome’s. 

Sesshoumaru plucked the pipe from her and took a long pull. Tension bled out of him with the thick smoke. 

His mother’s attention though was entirely focused on Kagome. “What is your name Little Treat?” She purred and Kagome felt herself being sucked in. 

“Ka-Kagome.” He head felt light. Her mouth felt pliant. 

“Ah like the star. It suits you.” She watched the fire dance in the demoness’ eyes. Hypnotized. 

“Stop.” Sesshoumaru took another pull from the pipe before handing it back to his mother who tapped it gingerly into the fire. Kagome shook her head clearing the cobwebs from her mind. 

“Ha! I told you! They are lovers.” She shot at Tōga. 

His laugh was rich and golden, “this one is as pure as fresh snow. She is no man’s lover.” 

“More than one way...” the demoness mumbled. 

“She is my brother’s mate.” Kagome didn’t miss his hesitation in saying brother. Or the way he made the word sound like an insult. She gripped firmly to the familiarity.

“It’s not like that.” Kagome grumbled. Sesshoumaru gave her a look that besieged her silence. “Sorry, it’s a touchy subject.” 

“My my do tell-“ Sesshoumaru’s mother began but her son, bless him, cut her off. 

“State your business.” His normal bossy tone was lacking edge. Kagome wondered if it was because he was talking to his mother or what ever was in that pipe that made him sound almost amenable. 

”Straight to the point eh? It’s good to chat a little, builds trust.” Tōga replied. Kagome was struck by how dynamic he was. His smiles came easily. When he laughed it was like the sound came from his whole body all at once. 

“Kidnapping people and holding them prisoner isn’t a great way to build trust.” Kagome muttered earning one of those full body laughs. 

“What need have thieves for allies?” Sesshoumaru tried to keep a conversation on track. 

“Thieves! How dare you! I will have you know, cur, that I am heir to the Moonlit Path and this my most loyal guard. To insinuate we are lowly thieves-“ 

“You did kind of steal us.” Kagome interrupted. 

Sesshoumaru gave his mother a pointed look then another at the cave behind them. For the first time Kagome noticed things on recesses in the cave walls, a porcelain vase here, a jade dragon there, a stone spire that made her reiki tingle when she looked at it. And deeper in the cave, trunk after truck, a few cracked open, gold and jewels spilling forth. 

“Fine fine. You are terribly annoying. As circumstance would have it we are attempting to steal something quite large and having a priestess would make things much easier. A third daiyoukai wouldn’t hurt either.” The demoness had a wicked gleam in her golden eyes. 

“What are you planning on stealing?” Kagome asked surely playing into her trap. 

“The moon.”


	5. Five

Chapter 5 

Kagome woke to an empty cave. The trio of demons had spent the night plotting since none actually needed to sleep. She had tried to stay up but after about a dozen yawns Sesshoumaru nudged her and told her to sleep without room for argument. Still she laid awake in a pile of furs until almost dawn. 

Her stomach rumbled, the meager meal of rabbit not lasting long. Her mouth felt dry and gross. Her hair was a tangled mess that she gave up on trying to comb through with her fingers. Her back still ached from yesterday’s abuse. To top things off she had to pee. 

Outside she found a spot along the sheer cliff path far enough from the cave that she was able to relieve herself and a trickle of a spring where she could wash her face and take a drink. When she returned there was a small pile of shelled nuts and berries in the spot where she had been sleeping. Grateful none were poisonous she gathered them to herself and made her way to the mouth of the cave and sat, legs pulled to her to fight the early morning chill, to eat. 

In the valley below the cave Kagome could make out two figures, Sesshoumaru and Tōga. She watched as they went through katas. Sesshoumaru had a sword, and sliced through the stances with a grace she was familiar with. Every motion was fluid art. His armor was gone, he was naked from the waist up. She had to squint, but she could see the muscles in his back slide as he went from one pose to the next. 

Tōga ran through the katas as well, only a little behind Sesshoumaru. He swung Bakusaiga in a wide arch, but it wasn’t perfect so Sesshoumaru did the motion again. She wondered if Sesshoumaru was correcting his stance verbally or just running through the same movement again to show him the right way. 

Her heart swelled watching them. She smiled, pulling her legs in closer and let her chin rest on her knees. The son teaching the father. The empathy she felt for Sesshoumaru was just that, empathy, not sympathy. She knew what the loss of a father felt like. She would give anything for an opportunity like this. For an opportunity to see her father again even if he didn’t know that he was her father. 

A few errant tears slid down her cheeks. Before she could wipe them away a claw brushed her cheek capturing them. White fur settled over her shoulders as Sesshoumaru’s mother settled herself at Kagome’s side sharing her warmth. Her small pink tongue darted out from upturned lips to lick her claw clean. 

“Crying while smiling. How odd.” The demoness mused. 

Kagome wiped the rest of the tears away before turning to Sesshoumaru’s mother. “You never told me your name.” 

“You can call me ‘Your Majesty’. ‘Your Highness’? ‘Venerable Ruler’?” Kagome laughed. She was exactly like her son, or more accurately he was exactly like her. Proud, haughty, self-important. 

“Milady?” Kagome suggested and the demoness smiled, mirth dancing in her eyes. 

“That will do.” They watched the men below them in silence for a moment. “You care for him. Yet you are promised to his brother, no?” 

Kagome drew up short. Sesshoumaru was more of an acquaintance than friend. She teased him by calling him ‘brother in law’ and got a kick out of how annoyed he looked when Rin started mimicking her less formal speech patterns. She imagined they had a sort of mutual respect for one another. But did she care for him? She told his mother as much. 

“So this brother of his must be very impressive. I’m surprised I’ve never heard of a demon in my own line that powerful. You would think rumors would spread about one as strong as Sesshoumaru, but a brother even stronger...” she let her sentence trail off. 

Weighing her words carefully Kagome replied, “Sesshoumaru is quite a bit stronger than his brother.” 

“Interesting. You know you are strong enough to end them both, yes?” She nodded to the field below. “Why would you pledge yourself to a demon, no less one that is weaker than you?” She studied Kagome with genuine curiosity. 

“I love him.” She replied automatically. 

“Love. Useless human emotion.” The Lady snorted. Kagome laughed at how alike mother and son truly were. And she vowed to herself to stop at nothing in finding her in the future. 

“What about you and Tōga? Are you...” 

“Disgusting.” Tōga replied behind her, she hadn’t seen either of them leave the field, but both he and Sesshoumaru were walking toward them now. 

“You wish you were so lucky you foul mongrel” the Lady replied with no real bite in her tone.

“Lucky? I value all my limbs and wouldn’t trust a damn one with this bitch.” He grabbed at his crotch. 

“Feral mutt. Grab yourself like that again in our presence and you will have one less limb to trust me with.” 

Kagome watched in awe as a slow smile played on Sesshoumaru’s lips. His eyes softened in a way Kagome had never seen, suspected very few people had. She rubbed her eyes to catch the tears before they had a chance to fall. 

Everyone dressed and they headed out shortly after, Kagome still in Tōga’s garb. They had a day’s travel ahead of them before they reached Mount Fuji. Most of the night had been spent plotting and arguing over who would do what and Kagome was still pretty unsure of the scheme. They couldn’t actually be stealing the literal moon could they? 

Apparently they were though. The main point of dissent seemed to be who would partner with whom. Kagome’s role was as a priestess, one blessed and favored by the Gods to distract them while the others stole what they needed to. A celestial robe from Amaterasu and bow from Tsukuyomi respectively. Sesshoumaru refused to part with her for long, but he and his mother’s markings were proof of their pledge to Tsukuyomi so they couldn’t possibly be seen by Amaterasu. Tōga was a product of the Sun god and couldn’t be seen by Tsukuyomi. It was finally decided that he and Kagome would approach Amaterasu and she and the Lady would approach Tsukuyomi leaving the other two to do the actually stealing. It was a plan Kagome could live with except her terrible acting skills. Luckily she was getting practice en route with the demons in their party. 

Around mid day, as they were skirting a human settlement, Sesshoumaru disappeared only to reappear with a simple cotton yukata and obi in hand. It wasn’t priestess garb, which would have been handy, but it was better than traipsing into a God’s house in demon silk. A literal God!

“Did you steal this?” Kagome asked emerging from behind a tree where she had changed. Tōga shrugged back into his clothing and gave himself a hearty sniff. 

“Hn.” He grunted noncommittally. 

“You did! All the stuff you bring Rin? Is that stolen too?” Kagome found herself equally amused and amazed despite the accusation. 

“Is it stealing if the owner is too weak or complacent to defend their property?” Sesshoumaru questioned in return. 

“If the owner of the property is allowed to live when any one of us could destroy them, is it stealing or a small payment for their continued life?” His mother added. 

“Keh, half these humans are living on the lands and good will of youkai anyway.” Tōga grumbled. 

Kagome laughed, how unlike her traveling party during her last adventure was this? Last time the demon to human ratio was pretty even, but now she was painfully aware of her humanity. They all seemed content to move at a human pace and stop for meals that only she ate, but she couldn’t help feeling a measure of guilt. 

Sesshoumaru seemed especially attentive to her. He wouldn’t make excuses to stop, rather he just did. And everyone else stopped with him without question. His mother’s keen eyes slid to Kagome when they slowed down as the sun got low, obviously looking for a camp. 

“He is very attentive to your needs Little Treat.” Sesshoumaru’s mother whispered in her ear looping their arms together as they walked.

“He’s always like that with people in his care, I think.” She had spent a lot of time thinking about that when she was fifteen and thought the demon lord was the most interesting enigma of the feudal era. One day he just suddenly had a child, and she looked fine. Well fed, rested, he seemed concerned with her wellbeing. It was an oddity, she thought. Until he got another child. 

Kohaku never really spoke about his time with Sesshoumaru and they didn’t ask because he was dead at the time and the memories weren’t something he wanted to re-hash. When she had returned after a three year stint in her era Inuyasha warned her about talking to Rin about Sesshoumaru. The girl never cried but at the mention of his name they would have to spend days dodging her pre-teen angst. 

Her interactions with Sesshoumaru had been limited when she was younger. Later, she would have a few conversations with him about Rin’s needs and tutelage. His image shifted in her mind a little more. Not only would be bring things Rin needed but things Kaede could use as well. In the winter he brought thick blankets, dried meat, and fur-lined boots. She suspected, but was never able to confirm, that he was the one who fitted old miko’s hut with better coverings for the windows and door to stave off the chill. 

“It would be a waste to not take advantage of his concern. There are a great many way for a woman to make gains in this world and a daiyoukai could be a valuable asset. He isn’t bad to look at either.” 

“I’d rather make my way on my own, thank you.” Kagome grumbled but the demoness seemed pleased by that answer. “He is nice to look at though I’ll admit.” Kagome whispered back. Ahead of them Sesshoumaru ran a hand through his silver hair and she knew, just knew, he had heard her. Kagome could feel the blush rising in her cheeks. 

“Oh ho, how would your intended feel about this knowledge?” The demoness fanned Kagome with her free hand. 

“It doesn’t really matter.” 

Later that night as they sat around the fire, the three demons smoking from the same pipe while Kagome picked at a handful of berries and mushrooms, edible this time, she got an idea. She had been trying to get time alone with Sesshoumaru all day. She needed an update. They needed to touch base. 

He knew his parents and maybe he had some idea of where they were on the timeline. They needed to establish that to make sure they didn’t change anything. Surely stealing the moon would be a tale they told him. Slapping her own forehead she realized they should have used a fake name for him. Did this mean they named their child after himself? Maybe they would erase their memories somehow? Quantum stuff always gave her a headache. 

An idea formed, and a great opportunity to practice her acting. 

“Sesshoumaru, do you think there is somewhere around here to bathe? I feel kind of...” she let the sentence   
trail sniffing her armpits. 

“You’re fine.” Tōga cut in. “Actually you smell like a wet-“ Sesshoumaru’s mother smacked him before he could finish. 

“Mmmmm a bath sounds divine. I can escort you Little Treat.” She ran a tongue along a fang that glinted in the firelight. 

Kagome gave her a look she hoped was imploring the cut her gaze to where Sesshoumaru was reclined. She threw in a wink for good measure. Thankfully the demoness winked back, “on second thought you do stink and I don’t want to be naked in a stream with your lithe body and considerable bosom. Sesshoumaru you should take your human somewhere to bathe!” 

Sesshoumaru unfurled himself from the ground and stood slowly, sniffing the air. She wasn’t ready when he grabbed her arm and then was torn apart again. She would never be ready for that feeling, she thought. 

When she was put back together the first thing she noticed was the mineral smell of a hot spring. Internally she rejoiced, her back would appreciate this! 

There was thunk behind her followed by a rustle. She turned slowly, waiting for the telltale splash, her stomach clenched at the knowledge of a naked Sesshoumaru, right there, within arms reach. When she turned though she found that the spring had a second smaller pool attached with a rocky barrier for privacy. Sesshoumaru was in the larger of the two pools with his back to her.

Stripping down she never took her eyes off the back of his head, laid back against the rock with this arms spread wide. A moan was pulled from her as she slipped below the water herself. She dipped under the water holding her breath as long as she could. She had always enjoyed the strain, the challenge. 

Kagome broke the surface with an inhale that went all the way to her toes. Wading in the chest deep water to where Sesshoumaru sat she rested her head on her crossed arms on the rocks separating them. She counted on the darkness of the water to maintain her modesty. She could bearely make out his outline between the steam and light of the almost full moon. 

“So, this is an adventure huh? How are you feeling with your parents and all that?” 

He sighed, one of those full body sighs where your spirit leaves for a second and then settles back in. Then he laughed, low and rich. Kagome made a noise deep in her throat that sounded more animal than human to her ears. Somewhere between a grunt and a squeak. 

“Sorry sorry I’ve never really... are you ok?” 

“My parents are younger than me. My father can hardly swing a sword. My father...” Sesshoumaru trailed off and she ached to hug him, but settled for a pat on the hand she had to stretch over the rocks to reach. He snatched his hand away as if burned and she could see the moonlight reflected in his sharp eyes. 

Kagome watched him then, moving like a normal person, shifting to get more comfortable in the spring, running a hand through his hair. He had always been so aloof, so distant. Again she felt like a peeping Tom looking into a part of him that wasn’t meant for her. She thought about him smoking that thin pipe and how he had snatched it out of her hand the night before. “Are you high?” She blurted then quickly ducked under the water when she realized she had said it aloud. 

When she broke the water his reply was waiting, “Would you deny a small comfort in times such as these?” He sounded so tired.

“Your mom seems nice. Maybe a little crazy.” Kagome tried to change the subject. 

“I knew you to be detrimentally charitable.” Kagome laughed and sat back in the spring to her nose, idly blowing bubbles as she thought of where to go next. 

“I think your mom might be hitting on me.” Kagome mused, then realized how that thought must affect him. “Ugh I’m sorry! Again! That was be so awkward for you to watch!” 

“I assure you, she is. I assure you, it is.” 

“Well, on the bright side at least she’s not hitting on you!” Kagome laughed nervously and wanted to die right then and there. A bolt of lightening right now please. 

“She would not. My mother doesn’t favor men.” She thought he sounded very very tired then. 

“But your father...” 

“Is also propositioning you, do not be flattered. He favors any woman with a pulse. Or at least that is still warm.” 

Kagome choked. “No I mean your mother and your father, if she doesn’t like men how did they get together. Maybe that’s why we are here?” 

“She doesn’t favor men, but she is not above a dalliance. They do not come together until after she has The Moon and he her General.” He fell silent for a moment and Kagome figured he was trying to remember stories from his childhood that were only half true. “I was unaware that The Moon was stolen. I was led to believe it was a gift.” 

“A gift from the god of the moon. The god of the moon just gives your mom THE MOON?” Kagome balked. 

“Hn, mother is-“ he cut off and there was a schlucking noise flowed by a splash and she was being driven back . He pushed her to the darkest edge of the pool where an outcropping hid them from view. A clawed hand was firmly fastened over her mouth. Soaking wet armor and clothes that he had pulled into the spring with them left very little room for two bodies in the crevice.

“Quiet.” He hissed at her mumbled protests. “Reign your power in.” 

His naked body pressed against hers as hard as his youki against her reiki made the task much more difficult. Kagome closed her eyes and breathed. She ran through all the practices and things Kaede and Miroku had tried to teach her. It never worked. Her power was seeing what was behind. It was impossible with Sesshoumaru smothering her reiki with his-

“Ah!” Reiki popped around her and there was the heart of the issue, the thing that lie behind. They needed to hide. There was no arrow to shoot at the heart, but there was a solution and her power raised up to meet the demand. Sesshoumaru let her go and moved back a hair’s breath, eyebrows drawn together in confusion. Youkai flared and crackled and was snuffed out as it hit the air around them. Testing it, he waved a hand in the water sending a small wave out that met the barrier and just... disappeared. 

Sesshoumaru pointed to his ear and Kagome shrugged. She didn’t know if they could be heard. She pointed to her nose. Sesshoumaru tested the air, then affirmed. He couldn’t smell anything outside the bubble. Relaxing inch by inch they settled in to wait. The space was small leaving Kagome frightfully aware that their bodies were seamed together shoulder to knee. She could only hope that whoever the intruder was made it quick because she was going to catch on fire, or implode, and wasn’t sure the barrier would hold up against that. 

Soft feminine laughter floated through the steam. Pieces of conversation reached Kagome and she wondered how much more Sesshomaru could hear. He tensed beside her. One voice became familiar as they got closer and louder; his mother. 

The two women spoke in hushed whispers of time they missed and love they shared. Soon the laughter and conversation turned to soft moans. Kagome caught a name spoken like a prayer from Sesshoumaru’s mother’s lips ‘Uzume’. 

As the volume of the moans intensified Kagome realized, in that dark outcrop, wrapped in her power, pressed too closely together, they were listening to Sesshoumaru’s mom making love. She didn’t know if it was sympathy or just the universal human nightmare of accidentally hearing your parents fuck that moved her, but she found herself turning to the side and reaching up to cover Sesshoumaru’s ears. 

One time when Kagome had returned from the Feudal Era, right after she met Sango, she ran to her mother and cried. It was probably the most she had ever remembered crying. Fat sopping tears and choked screams fell from her like a dam broke somewhere deep inside. Once she could talk again she told her mama the heart wrenching story of the demon slayers and how useless she felt in not being able to do anything for the siblings who reminded her so much of her and Souta. Mama held her tight and told her ‘you can’t fix everything for everyone. Sometimes the best you can do is offer useless comfort. And that is enough.’ 

She realized that was what she doing even as Sesshoumaru peeled her hands away and held them both captive in one of his. Of corse her hands couldn’t muffle the moans from from reaching his supernatural ears, but she could offer comfort in trying. And that had to be enough. 

They stayed that way for a long time, as sounds of ecstasy turned into contented sighs. Hands held as tightly as her gaze. Whatever she saw in his eyes she was too young or too inexperienced or too human to comprehend. But she tried, and that had to be enough. 

Later, when Sesshoumaru deemed it safe, they dressed in wet clothes and silence. Some nagging memory kept popping up in Kagome’s mind. 

“Uzume!” She knew that name was familiar, “She’s a goddess. And if I remember right she has a magical mirror!” Pleased with herself she looked over her shoulder at Sesshoumaru who was deep in thought, mentally elsewhere. How did he manage to keep all the things he had learned in such a long life filed away neatly, she wondered. 

“That woman was neither human nor demon. That is why I chose not to be seen. They were plotting. They are planning to betray my father.” 

“Huh, Why is he hanging around your mom?” Kagome stepped up to him and braced herself for the ride back to camp. “And what is your dad’s stake in this anyway?” 

“That, is the correct question.”


	6. Six

Chapter 6

The rest of the trip to Fuji was easy going. Kagome spent her time trying to pry Sesshoumaru’s mother for clues while Sesshoumaru worked on his father. Kagome was met with a beautiful brick wall. The demoness kept her cards close and subterfuge had never been Kagome’s strong suit. If Sesshoumaru’s occasional backwards glances were any indication she was doing about as well as expected. 

Sesshoumaru’s mother was playing high stakes poker and she was playing goldfish. 

Through some kind of magic the demoness managed to turn the conversation to Kagome’s love life at every opportunity. She had to admit though that the bitter pain she vomited was all of her doing. A wound left to fester. 

There really was no one to talk to about this stuff back in the time she had started to admit was her own now. When she had returned it was a happy ending she shared with everyone. When she tried to bring up her discontent with the status quo she and Inuyasha had fallen into everyone just reassured her that everything would work itself out in the end. They were destined to be together. 

In the months after her return they had gone into a honeymoon phase punctuated by sweet kisses and lingering touches. He asked her to marry him high in the branches of the Goshinboku and of course she said yes. But then months turned into a year and now two years. She didn’t want to push him. He did things at his own pace, always had. So, things had stayed the same but Kagome found herself wanting more. Then feeling guilty for wanting more. And bored. Disillusioned with her first love.

Sesshoumaru listened to his mother interrogate the girl, woman. It amused him that she thought she had an option to respond. Mother had a few unique skills. 

Of all the people to be stuck with why did it have to be his brother’s woman? She was easy to look at, certainly. But annoying and he suspected intentionally. She was useless in a battle, though she did have her own unique skills. He cringed at the thought of confronting his parents with Jaken. Rin would have been a suitable companion. His father would have adored her and he knew mother already did.

He was listening closely as she told his mother about Inuyasha. He knew the hanyou was a fool but had misjudged the extent. His thoughts lingered on the spring and her body pressed against his. Her thighs under his head. His father was speaking again and he really did have more important things to linger on. 

They reached the base of the mountain as the sun was setting so the decision was made to make camp. They couldn’t very well seek out the Sun God at night. The crisp cool night air around a pre-industrial Fuji had long been one of Kagome’s favorite places. That and the beach. There was something about the air around Fuji though, not quite purity but not quite not.

“You can feel it?” Sesshoumaru’s mom asked. Kagome didn’t realize she had been musing aloud. Thankfully pre-industrial wouldn’t be in their vocabulary for quite awhile yet. 

“Yes. It feels... clean.” 

“Divine.” Sesshoumaru corrected. She supposed that was made sense if it was the home of Gods. 

As day turned to night they ate and talked more. Nuts and berries. Kagome longed for a bowl of rice. Or some miso soup. She caught Sesshoumaru smiling at his parents spats and endearments. She found herself smiling with him. Absently Kagome handed nuts to Sesshoumaru who broke their shells easily in his fist. Before it got too late she gave his mother the same empoloring look from last night.

“Sesshoumaru, be a dear and wash your human. She positively reeks and my nose can not abide another minute of this torment.” The Lady hid her nose behind a delicate hand. 

“Oh, drop the pretense! We were all here last night when they came back wet and covered in each other’s scent. If you want to go fuck just say so.” The Lady slapped the back of Tōga’s head. 

“You absolute buffoon! Did you not hear her today? Are you incapable of logic? This is a sordid affair we are witnessing. We have to pretend not to know for propriety’s sake.” Before Kagome could respond Sesshoumaru grabbed her and they were gone. 

Instead of a hot spring they stopped at the mouth of a pool that was fed by a generous trickle of water from the mountain side. The pool was shallow, hardly deep enough to bathe in but the crisp clean trickle seemed a good makeshift shower. Sesshoumaru kept his back to her as she undressed and stepped into the stream of water. His shoulder jerked when she yelped at the freezing water hitting her skin, a quick shower then, she thought. Kagome avoided thinking about how she implicitly trusted him to keep his back turned. 

Even in her clothes she still shivered as she stepped out. To her surprise Sesshoumaru began pulling at the ties of his armor so she turned her back to him the same way he had her. Silk settled over her shoulders as he dropped his top on her. “For scent.” He supplied before she asked. 

As she waited a rustle in the bushes to her left drew her attention. Scooping up her bow and an arrow she waited on alert. A big rosy faced monkey stumbled out only to be met with the point of an arrow and bow string drawn tight. With a shriek the beast dove back into the bushes. It started out as a chuckle but soon Kagome was doubled over laughing, tears streamed down her face and she struggled to catch her breath. 

She felt Sesshoumaru approaching her from behind, “I saved you!” It was so absurd, as if he needed her help even if he was showering! 

He made a noise deep in his throat that she almost thought was a snort. “I am in your debt.” 

When she turned he was dressed in only his pants leaving his chest bare. His alabaster skin reflected the moonlight. He stood rigid near her, almost touching but not quite. After a moment he seemed to come to a decision. “We need to share more of our scents with one another. Go sit.” He gestured to a large bolder overlooking a valley that lay below. 

Settling in she startled when a claw brushed her neck pulling her yukata down in the back. “Er-“ 

“Skin on skin. Worry not your chastity is safe with me.” Blushing she shrugged out of her garments baring the top half of her back, but keeping the front together to protect her modesty. The heat of him settled behind her, back to back.

Something in his tone had bothered her. “Are you teasing me?” 

“Hn” was his only reply, but instead of the normal flat ‘Hn’ this one ended on an upturned note. 

Leaning her head against his back on his shoulder she looked up to the sky and the band of stars that cut across the endless darkness. “You can hardly even see the stars in my time. Nights here are amazing.” 

“Your time?” The question one his voice was unmistakable.

“Yah in my time there are so many man made lights that the stars are all blotted out. Oh and smog. Even when you go out of the cities the sky looks sort of flat I guess, here you can almost see the depth of the galaxy.” Kagome tried to get a look at him. He was so difficult to talk to if she couldn’t see him, you really had to put both his face, body language, and tone together to get a read on him. “Ah, but I guess my time is your time now, isn’t it?” 

“I see, when exactly is ‘your time’?”Kagome felt him pulling his damp hair over a shoulder, presumably to comb it out. She would have paid good money for that honor. 

His tone, his questions, pulled her up short though. Scrambling on her knees she turned to get a look at him at least in profile. “500 years in the future from your time.” His eyes widened minutely, as she suspected they would. Cocking her head to the side she asked, “you didn’t know I was from another time? Huh, I thought Inuyasha or Rin would have said something.” 

“They did not. I assumed something strange by your.... attire.” 

Settling behind him again she supposed maybe they hadn’t told him. He had always been a shaky ally at best where his brother was concerned. She laughed, “That was my school uniform. Honestly I miss that thing, women’s clothes in your time don’t leave much room for movement.” 

“School?” It was like being 15 again and trying to explain entrance exams to Inuyasha, except Sesshoumaru would grasp the concepts better she assumed. 

“It’s a place you go everyday for tutelage. We learn math, writing, history, science, philosophy,” she ticked all the subjects off on her fingers. 

“Science and philosophy.” He practiced the somewhat familiar words that he had surely learned from Rin. “I supposed thanks are in order for your tutelage of Rin then. A lot of things she has learned since your return are foreign even to myself.” 

“Oh, no thanks necessary. It’s been nice teaching her. Girls in your time don’t usually get an education but Rin so smart! It would be a waste of her mind to not teach her even if it is things that are beyond that time. I don’t really know how much good I’ve been though, Miroku taught her how to write and Kaede has thought her all about medical stuff, Kohaku and Inuyasha taught her how to fight-“ she felt his low growl reverberate through her back. “Stop it! It’s important for her to be able to defend herself. You can’t always be there Sesshoumaru.” 

“I am aware. Humans treat women low.” Huh, he had always given Rin the freedom to do as she pleased, hadn’t he? She always had interpreted it as him being indulgent but maybe there was more to that and somehow that idea pleased her. 

“So, did you learn anything from your dad?” Kagome changed the subject wanting to move away from these mental shifts she was making. 

“Nothing. I do think he cares for my mother though, but I cannot see a motivation behind his devotion.” 

“Maybe his motivation IS that he cares for her. I didn’t fare any better with your mom, if it makes you feel better.” 

“I heard.” Was his only input but Kagome picked up that almost teasing quality in his tone. 

“Are you teasing me again?” 

“Hn.” 

The next morning they ventured out to meet a God. Kagome was beside herself. How does one interact with an actual celestial being? How low do you bow to the Sun? Gramps would have a fit if she could tell him! 

The plan was set. Gods, Kagome learned, absolutely loved being asked for help. The only thing they loved more than being asked for their input or assistance was making people go on quests. Once you set out on a Godly quest the being themselves would watch, rapt, as you saw it through. It was like a tv drama but for higher beings, and something Kagome could get behind. 

She also learned from Sesshoumaru’s mom that the best way to tell a lie was to make it mostly true. So she and Tōga took off to find Amaterasu and implore her to bless their union details of which were just subbing in Tōga for Inuyasha. It was a good plan and one Kagome might actually be able to lie her way through. 

While she was distracted watching them Sesshoumaru and his mom would take the celestial robe. What if she’s wearing it? Kagome asked, but Sesshoumaru’s mom knew she only wore it on the equinox. How she came about so much knowledge of Godly habits did not escape Kagome or Sesshomaru’s curiosity. 

Kagome and Tōga spent the better part of the morning walking the narrow path up the eastern side of the mountain. They chatted about idle things but every time he spoke her heart broke a little because of how much he reminded her of Inuyasha. If Inuyasha has grown up with his father he would been so much better for it. And that knowledge was very heavy. 

Around one particularly sheer cliff there was a small shrine carved into the rock. It was a simple thing with a plain roof and undecorated pillars. Peeking inside Kagome saw a little alter with a stylized sun behind it. 

As Kagome peered inside the shrine a single ray of light reached inside and illuminated the tiny carved sun. Then they were standing in golden hall instead of a rocky mountainside. She and Tōga turned in a tight circle gawking at their new surroundings. 

Floor to ceiling gold surrounded them. Images were carved into walls that felt endless, Kagome knew without trying that even if she tried to reach the walls they would be constantly out of reach. ‘Carved’ was also an inaccurate description she realized, as a bright koi flitted through a maple tree. The images were in constant motion, a swaying maple, a trickle of water off a stone face, the lurch of an onii making its way through a bamboo grove. 

“Wow.” Kagome said breathless as she picked up her foot so that a snake who was part of the floor could slither by. 

“Yah.” Tōga’s knuckles were turning white from his grip on Bakusaiga’s hilt. 

“A priestess and a demon. This should be good.” A young girl with jet black hair haloed by golden rays stepped out from a cave carved in the golden walls.


	7. Seven

Chapter 7

Faced with the soft melodic voice of the Sun Goddess Kagome completely forgot her script. Her voice was both quiet and loud at the same time. It filled the space around them with a warmth that bleed through Kagome’s consciousness. 

“Amaterasu-sama.” Tōga went to his knees in a bow so low he pressed his forehead to the floor. Realizing herself Kagome followed suit. “My Goddess, my lover and I come to seek your favor in our union.” 

“Rise children. Your formality pleases me, and your presence intrigues me. Tell me your story.” They both rose to their knees and Kagome made a conscious effort to loosed her jaw, to peel her tongue from the roof of her mouth. 

“Amaterasu-sama, my name is Kagome and I am a priestess as you observed. My lover, one of your own, and I have been shunned by both demons and humans. We have faced great difficulty in being together.” Kagome looked to Tōga and it wasn’t difficult to summon tears when,with a few mental adjustments, he became the love of her life. “We want a happy ever after and were hoping to get your blessing or advise at least since you are the matron of both our lines.” 

“Oh dear,” the Goddess’ childlike face was filled with concern. A soft smile spread across her lips igniting the halo around her. “This is my dog, you are correct, but you are not one of mine. It matters not.” Her lips turned down in a gentle pout, “I cannot bless this union.” 

Tōga’s head snapped up, then catching himself he he redirected his gaze to the floor. Kagome’s hand sought and squeezed his reassuringly. “Why?” He rasped through clenched teeth. That magnetism she had observed made him an excellent actor. 

“You come to me claiming to seek my blessing for your love, alas I do not believe someone holding a sword so miserable capable of such emotion. That thing at your hip screams with the desire to conquer. If you and your lady truly seek a peaceful life basking in the light of your love, then return to me with a blade forged to protect and be rid of this cursed monstrosity.” Kagome gasped, she couldn’t help it. A sword forged to protect! Her stomach clenched at the realization of Tensaiga’s absence. It hadn’t been forged yet!

“Is that our quest then?” Tōga asked, fists clenched. 

“It is.” 

Then they were back on the mountainside looking into the simple shrine. They exchanged a look, Tōga questioning and Kagome knowledgeable. 

“Where am I supposed to get a blade forged to protect? What does that even mean? Keh, aren’t all blades made the same? Their use is in the wielders hand!” He paced, hands buried in the hair at his temples as he worked things out. 

“Come on, I know a guy.” Kagome started walking in the direction of Totosai’s forge. 

They spent the better part of the day going in what she hoped was the right direction, the landscape was vaguely different, but the dark mountain stood out in the distance, unnatural and seeping in demonic aura. Even as the sun dipped over the horizon she could feel the heat on the back of her neck. The goddess was watching. Their plan was working. 

“Do you think she can hear us?” Kagome whispered to Tōga as they made camp for the night. 

“I can guarantee it.” He replied solemnly. 

He caught her fish that night and cooked them for her. He passed little chunks of fish directly to her hands, it was a show of care she knew. And her heart broke a little more at the realization that even as deeply in their courtship as they were, Inuyasha never fed her. Shippo had told her years ago that sharing food was tantamount to saying ‘I love you’ in canine. 

That night he wasn’t the over-the-top flirt he had been on the first part of their journey. He was quiet and contemplative as he sat with Bakusaiga across his lap, idly toying with the hilt. Kagome wondered if this was just another side of him or if he was simply respecting her implied bond with Sesshoumaru. Maybe the whole thing had been an act and this quiet, calm, deeper Tōga was the real thing. 

She fell asleep that night with tears for Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru and this man who would one day die great in her eyes and her head resting on the soft fur around his shoulder. 

In the morning Kagome woke in a small puddle of drool on Tōga’s pelt. She dabbed at it, apologizing miserably but he laughed her off. “Who am I to hold a grudge against a beautiful woman drooling over me!” 

They reached the base of Totousai’s forge around noon. The terrain was too wild for Kagome to traverse so Tōga carried her to the top in his arms rather than his back, as Inuyasha would have done. She found herself grateful for that small favor, if he had, if she had wrapped her legs around him and felt the prick of his claws against her thighs, she was sure she would have wept. She was done for the day with leaking on his pelt. 

Kagome didn’t want to get to know Tōga. She didn’t want to feel his easy laughter, or know the way his fangs glinted when he smiled, or feel comforting presence. He was dead nearly a millennia before she would be born. He was reduced to a legend of his war prowess. He was two semi-sentient swords. He was a giant skeleton on the pathway to hell. He was an absentee father who left one son with a legacy of disappointment and stranger to the other. It was too close a memory of her own father. Her emotions were a rollercoaster. 

They found Totousai in his turtle home, unchanged by time. Part of Kagome had been hoping to meet a young Totousai, with a full head of hair and all of his teeth. She wondered if he had been born old. 

“Do I know you?” The old man studied Kagome as she knocked on the side of a giant bone. “You look familiar. Really familiar.” Brows drawn together she shook her head no. “Ack! Never mind! What do you want?” 

“We’re here to commission a sword. One that is can only be used to protect.” Tōga stood tall behind her as she spoke looking around at the array of demonic weapons in awe. 

“I don’t make swords for humans.” He slammed his hammer down to emphasize his refusal. 

“Oh it’s not for me! It’s for him.” Kagome gestured behind her to Tōga who snapped his attention to the smith. A slow prideful smile spread across his lips. 

“And who might you be? You are certainly familiar!” Before Tōga could respond Totousai was at his side sliding a few inches of Bakusaiga from its sheath. “Huh, I don’t remember making this one, but here it is! What a piece of work!” He slid the the sword back in its sheath with a click. “I can’t make anything for this pup, he’s too weak. Come back in a few hundred years.” 

“Hey you old geezer!” While Tōga went in on the smith Kagome focused on summoning crocodile tears. The fight was so familiar that it was easy. She didn’t even feel bad about manipulating the old man after all the times he would later make her life more difficult with his cryptic advice that always came too late. 

“We don’t have a few hundred years Master Totousai! I’m human and I’ll die. Please, we need a sword to protect or we can never be together!” She got him, hook, like, and sinker. He always went all soft when she cried. 

“I can’t make anything worthwhile for you unless you get real strong real fast.” He rubbed his chin and scratched his head thoughtfully and Kagome knew where this was going. “There’s a dragon. Really powerful, you’ll probably die but at least you’ll die together eh eh. If you can bring me his fire there might be something I can do for you.” 

As they bound down the mountain Tōga jostled her, “you know where any dragons are?” 

“Ah ha ha nope. That ones going to be on you. He said to north so north we go!” Kagome pointed to the north. 

“That’s East.” 

Another day was lost and Kagome worried abut Sesshoumaru and his mother. Incessantly. She kept asking Tōga pointed questions about his lady but he was as evasive as she was and they got no good answers. 

As they settled in for the night Tōga turned to her, eyes seeking, “we need to talk about... your ‘old man’.” The grave undertone in his request made her squirm. 

“Yah sure. I understand.” They had to speak in code, the sun was still warm on her back. 

“This sword is pretty bad.” He slowly slid Bakusaiga from its sheath. “I’ve been carrying it for a few days now and it’s like the sword itself wants to conquer. To kill. Do you know where he got it? Do you know what it does? That smith seemed to know something.” 

Kagome drew up short at the genuine concern in his golden eyes. Concern for her. Almost patriarchal in its intensity beaming from a face that looked to be the same age as her own, though she knew him to be much much older. 

“His father was a great man. His goal has been, for a long time, to be greater.” Kagome’s heart was pounding. She wanted to scream. ‘You should be having this conversation with him! Not me!’

Tōga’s gaze shifted to the fire, silence filled the space between them and Kagome wanted to tear it apart. She wanted to be a reckless as she had been in her youth and tell him everything without a single care for time or reality. They had already met! He would know Sesshoumaru in the future and remember him! The only thing that stopped her was Tenseiga’s absence. It was the first sign of continuum that she had encountered in her time travels and she understood the significance. Ugh! She could change Sesshoumaru’s whole life with just a few words! 

“I can’t imagine a father wanting that for his son. There is so much more to life than power. Joy, peace, love...” 

Kagome felt her heart fracture. The high pitch whine of fissures in crystal. She tried her best to commit everything he said to memory. Relaying this Sesshoumaru was now her cause. Her reason for being in this time. This had to be it. 

She slept fitfully that night, dreaming of a world where Tōga was still alive to raise his sons. 

They stumbled upon more than found the dragon. Late morning Kagome excused herself from the trail they were following up a craggy cliff side to relieve herself. Squatting, skirts pulled up, ready to pee, she felt something tickle her ankle. She slapped it away but it came back. Daring a peek she looked down, a long black whisker reached for her again. Screaming she fell back and scuttled away. Her eyes followed the length of the whisker to a giant maw and further on big green eyes topped with shaggy brows. 

Tōga burst through the underbrush, Bakusaiga drawn, and the dragon reared up. And up and up and up. It was massive, moss, rocks, and trees fell away and the serpentine body rose into the sky. 

Youki flared, and Tōga was replaced with a hulking white dog, smaller than Sesshoumaru in his dog shape, but still quite large. He leapt in the air nipping at the heels of the dragon. Kagome scrambled up the hillside, back to the craggy cliff trail, to get a better vantage point of the fight. It was a difficult climb with her bow on her back and the discarded Bakusaiga in her hand. 

Tōga was magnificent, fluffier than Sesshoumaru, but no less vicious for it. He went at the dragon with a single minded intensity that reminded her of his younger son. Jaws gnashing he gained purchase on the dragon’s throat and kicked his feet out to tear at the beast’s belly with his claws. 

The dragon stumbled, flailed, and rolled through the air hitting the earth then hitting the hillside all in a manic tumble. Kagome jammed Bakusaiga in the ground at her side and knocked an arrow. The dragon hit the hillside below her in one of his rolls and Kagome got a better look at him. He didn’t have any teeth! His face was old and wizened. If this was the dragon they were looking for killing him wouldn’t be a conquest, it was just plain mean. 

“Tōga! Stop!” Red eyes turned to her and he shook the dragon with renewed vigor. “Tōga stop! You can’t kill him! He’s - he- he’s OLD!” Green eyes cut inter her as well but Tōga let the dragon go and landed next to her, back in his more human-like form. 

“What the fuck woman? I had him!” 

“I know! Can’t you see, he’s so old! That wasn’t a fight it was a slaughter! Do you want to win like that?” Hands on her hips her temper flared. “You sure talked a lot of game last night.” The dragon hit the forest floor hard, sending a cloud of dust and debris into the sky. Trees cracked and fell under his lumbering body as he struggled to stand again and failed. 

Kagome slid back down the cliff side using her bow in the dirt to slow her skid. Huge green eyes winced in pain and she scrambled up his prone body to the gash in his throat. The wound was bigger than her, still she tried uselessly to pull the flesh back together. There, deep in his neck, she saw the burning ember of his fire. If she reached in just a little she could pull it out. She mumbled useless apologies to him as tears prickled the back of her eyes. 

Tōga joined her and put a hand on her shoulder, pulling her away from the jagged edges of the gash. “He’s going to die Kagome. That old codger said to slay the dragon and we did. We just have to grab the fire and let him go.” 

“You said, YOU SAID, there is more to life than power! Is it really worth killing him? Can’t you feel it? He’s ancient. He IS this forest.” Wiping her miserable tears away she looked at his giant, gentle face and buried her hands in the soft moss that grew between his scales. “I’m so sorry. I wish there was something I could do.” The scales under her hands began to glow, green at first, then as she watched the familiar shimmer of her reiki bled into the green. ‘I’m healing him’, she thought. But that didn’t feel right. She hasn’t giving him her power. He was sucking it out. She could feel her reiki being manipulated in a way she had never really imagined. Then there was only darkness. 

Bang! Bang! Bang! Kagome pulled the blanket around her higher to cover her ears. But the banging was too loud and too echoed through her skull. With a groan she struggled to lift her heavy eyelids. They scratched against her eyeballs like sandpaper. Her throat was sandpaper too. And her skin. Literally everything but the blanket around her was sandpaper. Fine grit. 

Consciousness creeped in slowly. Her brain sluggish. She remembered the dragon. The Dragon! She shot up and tried to reconcile her surroundings. She was in Toutousai’s forge. The blanket was Tōga’s pelt and she was held tightly to him as she slept. His armor lay discarded in the pile by the door. 

“The dragon?” She searched Tōga’s eyes for a clue and was met with cool resignation. 

“He’ll be fine. Sucked you dry, healed himself with your power, then gave you half his flame.” Her mouth fell open with an oh. She tried to summon her reiki, tried to feel Tōga or Toutousai’s youki, but there was nothing there. No power to grip. Dread settled low in her stomach. She had felt this way before, when her power was sealed. 

Power had never been her aim, it wasn’t how she lived her life. She hardly even used it for anything other than small exorcisms these days anyway. But, the feeling of it missing still felt like a part of her essential self had been torn away. She mourned it’s loss for a minute then resolved, decided to move on. It would be ok. 

She smiled weakly at Tōga “as long as he’s alive.” The intensity of Tōga’s kind proud regard made her uncomfortable. 

Toutousai huffed threw a handful of dust over his shoulder at her. “That’s yours. Has no business in a demon blade. Couldn’t put it in there even if I wanted to.” 

With the settling dust on her skin the layers of the world she used to reappeared. Everything was sharper, more faceted. Tōga’s youki flared to life, familiar and comforting. With a big exhale she slumped back and let her eyes slide shut again. 

When she woke next they were in the woods and the sun was just breaking the tree line. Tōga walked on as if he didn’t have a full grown woman cradled in his arms. 

“Morning.” He greeted her with a smile that reached his golden eyes. So much like Inuyasha. 

He stopped and let her slide to her feet. “Where are we?” She noticed the new and achingly familiar blade at his hip. Her bow and Bakusaiga were slung across his back and he handed her both. Tetsaiga’s hilt was new, the bindings tight and clean. The freshly polished wood of the sheath gleamed in the early morning light. 

“Wow so he made you a sword even though you didn’t kill the dragon?” 

He smiled and for the first time she noticed the gap where his canine used to be. “Tetsaiga. He said I still have a lot of training to do with it, but it’s a sword for protecting. He thought he got all your power out of it, but the sheath can make a barrier. Thank you Kagome.” He cupped her cheek gently and she leaned into the touch instinctively. “Not all power comes from killing, that’s what he said.” 

It was nearing sundown when they approached the little shrine on the side of Fuji. This time they were greeted by an old woman with long gray hair and the same golden halo, Kagome knew this to be the same Goddess they had met a few days ago. 

On his knees, Tōga presented Testsaiga to the goddess for her perusal. The blade was dull, but not near the rusty chipped thing that Kagome knew so well. She watched as Amaterasu weighed the sword in her divine hands.

“Well done. I had expected that to take you at least a decade, but here you are only a few days later. I apologize for underestimating you.” 

“Yah that’s been going around seems like.” Tōga grumbled to himself 

“Nevertheless I grant you my blessing. May your children and your children’s children be mighty.” The Goddess beconed them both to rise and kissed them each on their foreheads. Kagome felt heat scorch then settle deep in her bones. 

Then they were standing on the mountain side hand in hand.


	8. Eight

Chapter 8 

As soon as the last rays of light dipped below the horizon Sesshoumaru and his mother appeared before them, two bright orbs. 

“Gotta go!” Sesshoumaru’s mother grabbed ahold of Tōga and Sesshoumaru her. Kagome wondered about how the feeling of being rearranged was becoming less and less disconcerting with each transport. 

When she was back together the first thing that struck her was the harsh frigid wind. Then the unmissable smell of the sea. Sesshoumaru’s parents were no where to be found. His sword was back at his side and she wondered if he just took it back while he was putting her back together. It was just the two of them and the tempestuous sea. White capped waves beat against the shore. The moon glistened on the churning surface. 

“I love the sea.” Even more so when it’s surface reflected her emotional state. 

“So you said.” Sesshoumaru watched her with narrow eyes and browns drawn down in a scowl. His nose flared just slightly with each inhale. “You smell of my father.” He all but growled. 

And Kagome fell apart. Weeping she dropped her her knees in the cool sand. Through tear filled eyes she watched Sesshoumaru bend down and reach for her before thinking better of it and pulling his hand back. 

“I’m so sorry Sesshoumaru. I’m so sorry.” She choked out when she could. The words felt empty in her mouth. Hallow. Not enough. 

“My father?” Sesshoumaru did growl, lip pulled up in disgust. 

“What? No!” Kagome sat back, facing the sea. She hugged her knees to her chest more for comfort than to fight the piercing chill. “Sit please.” She patted the cool sand next to her and wiped uselessly at the seemingly endless fall of tears. 

He settled next to her and she pulled the fur draped over her shoulders more tightly around her. Grateful for the warmth and the gesture. His attentiveness to her needs was not a surprise. He was just as attentive with Rin, she knew. Still having that attention on her was a powerful feeling. It never seemed as if he were doing things for the sake of seeking thanks or praise. Just simple acts that were given freely without pretense. 

“He was wrong about you. Your father.” She supplied at his questioning look. “He thinks you’re cruel and power hungry. He thought that when he left you Tenseiga, that you needed to learn there was more to life than power.” Silently Sesshoumaru searched her eyes. She could see his hunger for more and it made her clench her fists in the sand. 

“I always knew there was more to you than killing your brother and striving for power. I want you to know that. Not that I know, it doesn’t matter that I know. Ugh, I’m making a mess of this!” Sesshoumaru grabbed her hand in the sand, prying her fingers open and when she finally let them relax he let go, but left his almost touching hers. 

“My father,” the sound of his voice almost startled her, anticipation built in the air, in her body, as she waited for him to go on. “My parents came together, creating me as a tool to further their own power. Inuyasha was born of love. When my father died his last act was to rebuke me for pursuing the very thing he did. The very thing he created me for.” 

Kagome reached for his hand and when he didn’t pull away she was emboldened. Grabbing onto the spikes of his armor instead she pulled herself up, she needed to be face to face with him. She needed him to understand this. It was IMPORTANT. 

“What your father wants from you is for you live your life. He wants you to be happy and love and be free. He was worried that you weren’t going to have any of that if all you care about is power. He loved you so much that he wanted to make sure you weren’t trapped in thinking you only have one purpose.” His gaze took an angry turn as he mulled over her words. She begged him with all her heart to understand. 

“We can save him. We can tell him everything.” Kagome finally said aloud the words that had been plaguing her this entire time. Continuum be damned. 

She saw the moment he shut her out. She hadn’t even known she was in until then. He peeled her hands off of him and holding both in one of his pushed them to her chest. His grip was too tight. Claws bit into her wrist. 

“And you Kagome? Would you take your own advise where Inuyasha is concerned and stop wasting yourself on him? Stop living like you only have one purpose, to be the half-breeds wife?” She stood, pulling herself free. Too fast. Skin tore but it didn’t hurt nearly as much as his words.

“There is no need to cruel. Take me back to the others.” Anger and sadness vied for domination inside of her. Sesshoumaru was so damn complicated. His emotions, if they could even be called that, were so difficult to understand. Was she ready to write him off? Why did she keep trying? Why did she keep forcing her kindness on him at every turn when he so clearly didn’t want it? 

“For you to accuse me of cruelty... I did not take you for a hypocrite.” He turned from her. Another fissure cracked in her heart. 

This time the feeling of being disassembled was almost gentle.

When they returned to the others camp was set. Sesshoumaru’s parents sat closely around the fire conspiring in low tones. Kagome watched as Sesshoumaru’s back tensed upon seeing Tetsusaiga. 

“What the fuck?” Tōga marched over to Sesshoumaru and got right in his face. “What did you do to her?” 

Kagome put her hand on the demon’s arm, placating. “It’s ok. I’m ok. We just got a little carried away.” She winked and tried to look convincing with her red swollen eyes.

Tōga wasn’t buying. Luckily Sesshoumaru’s mother scooped the story up and ran with it. “Kinky kinky. Tōga leave the man be, a little pain never hurt anyone. Come along Little Treat, lets get those cleaned up.” Arms looped together to two women made their way to a stream leaving the men in a slightly less tense stand-off. 

The next day was punctuated by tense silences and brooding contemplation. Kagome tried her best to encourage Tōga and Sesshounaru to talk, even idle chatter would have been better than the accusatory stares and tight jaws. 

Sesshoumaru’s mother seemed to be the only one in high spirits. Still riding the wave of adrenaline from her successful heist. She decided that sending Kagome and Sesshoumaru to try the same plea with Tsukuyomi as Amaterasu since it has been so successful. Kagome knew she wasn’t that good of an actor. 

They reached the base of the western side of the mountain at sunset. She and Sesshoumaru broke off from the others to begin their ascent. The animosity between them acted as a third party in their climb. Ever present and annoying. 

“You know, the least you could do is spend this time talking to your dad. Do you know how lucky you are to see him again, even if he doesn’t know you? I would kill to have that kind of opportunity, we’ll probably not kill but you know...” she was rambling, trying to replace that animosity with idle chatter. 

“Your father is also dead.” He spoke each word carefully, rounding them out, testing them for truth. Weighing each one, and coming to the understanding that she was pushing him because she understood. Sure there was chasm in the difference between her father who died a simple man when she was very young and left only gramps and a shrine as his legacy where Sesshoumaru would be left with expectations and reclamation. 

“Inuyasha is young. Simple. I doubt he expected to live to adulthood.” That was the closest she would get to an apology, Kagome knew. It wasn’t an apology she wanted anyway, it was platitudes to lay over wound his sharp honesty had opened up. 

The tension eased a little though and Kagome found herself breathing easy for the first time since the beach. 

The shrine for Tsukuyomi was the polar opposite of Amaterasu’s. The entire thing was cast of silver. Mother of pearl filled the inside with an iridescent shine while pearls, jade, and various gems decorated the eves and awnings. 

Moonlight filled the ornate shrine making the mother of pearl glow in response. Then they were standing in a palace. Brows drawn together Kagome spun in place, an oddly familiar palace. Although, maybe architecture for ancient Japanese palaces was pretty standard, there were a few signs that marked this place as having more than a passing resemblance. 

The decor had changed, to be sure, but as they ascended the stairs Kagome took note of the strange stone guards, swirling with pearlescent light. “Is this-“ Sesshoumaru cut her off with a curt nod. His brows were drawn down too, his youki swirled around her agitatedly. His fist clenched and unclenched in a way she had come to recognize as his angry-tell. 

Rather than a throne as the focal point of the courtyard there was a mother of pearl circle, it mirrored the almost full moon above, just a sliver of darkness made the circle not quite perfect. A silver frame surrounded the circle. Characters were etched into the metal, separately they were nonsense but together they told a beautiful poem, if only Kagome could figure out where it was intended to start. 

The air charged around them. Became lighter, divine, she was coming to recognize. Before them stood the Moon God. White eyes with no iris or pupil stared out of a face so beautiful it hurt to look at. Their features were neither masculine or feminine, rather a combination of the two, soft but strong, sharp but delicate, willowy but firm. Or maybe they were constantly shifting. It was hard to keep track. Their clothes gave no clue to their gender either, simply draped silk strips over their frame as if they couldn’t decide on one pattern so they just wore them all. Long white hair dusted the floor and Kagome wondered how they kept it clean, then realized they probably didn’t get dirty ever, because they were a God.

“Ah!” Kagome fell to her knees, forehead pressed against the mother of pearl floor. Sesshoumaru did not follow suit and Kagome pulled on his sleeve emploring him to follow protocols. Not that she was great at tradition herself but this wasn’t your average Joe. 

Eyes narrowed, he inclined his head the slightest bit. The only acknowledgement he was willing to give. 

“Dogs, always insolent.” Tsukuyomi’s voice gave no indication of their gender either, soft, neutral. “Why are you here?” 

Sesshoumaru kept his silence. “We seek you to bless our alliance. As you can see I am a priestess and he a demon of your line, tradition is not on our side so we were hoping the blessing of a powerful God might bring us peace.” Kagome tried to remember all the things Tōga had said to Amaterasu. 

They seemed to think for a moment then a mischievous smile spread slowly across their lips. Kagome looked across the circle to where Sesshoumaru now stood, neither having moved. His youki was erratic, moving his hair and making the fur at his shoulder flutter. 

The floor was no longer inlaid with mother of pearl, instead they were on a mirror. Kagome stood, she was really starting to hate mirrors. 

White eyes slid to her and even without an iris or pupil she knew the God was looking at her, into her. “Lies. You hold the shadow of another in your heart. Lingering. All but gone.”

They turned to Sesshoumaru next, “half-truths. Better than outright lie. Lust. Intrigue. You’re used to taking. This longing is so foreign to you.” They laughed with out humor. Kagome reeled, the axis of her earth shifting. She looked to Sesshounaru who only had eyes for the God. Eyes beginning to bleed red. “Do not growl at me insolent child. I know why you are here.” 

Tōga’s warmth at Kagome’s back, just outside the mirror, was a reassuring presence as he appeared along with Sesshounaru’s mother who stood in the center of the mirror closest to her future son. 

“There it is. I am not such a romantic fool as my sister. It is The Moon you are after. Thief. If you survive. You can have it.” With a wave of a manicured hand the mirror became a familiar swirl of galaxies full of brightly tinkling stars. 

“Meidō” Kagome had time to gasp and then she was falling.


	9. Nine

Chapter 9 

Tōga was the only one not standing on the face of the mirror when it changed. Time seemed to slow as the familiar force of the Meidō sucked Kagome in. She watched as he sped by her to his lady despite Kagome being within reach. And Sesshoumaru, bypassing his mother to catch Kagome around the waist, landing safely on the mirror’s edge. Tōga was not as lucky. He reached, but before he could catch her the floor was just a floor again. His fist met the surface, cracking the mother of pearl, but even as his fists railed on the surface the cracks sealed themselves. 

Kagome held fast to the solidity of Sesshoumaru. The nightmare of being caught in the Meidō once haunting her still. Up she looked to reddened eyes who were solely focused on his father. His hand around her waist gripped tight, fingers clenching and unclenching in time with his jaw. 

Tōga pulled Tetsaiga on the God. The fully formed blade pointed at their chest. He was yelling but Kagome could hardly hear him through the sound of her own blood rushing in her ears and Sesshoumaru’s youki whipping around them. 

Then they were on the mountainside looking at the ornate shrine. Tōga decimated it with a swipe of his claws. Rocks rained down on them with the force of his transformation and the roar that accompanied it. Sesshoumaru pulled them out of the way just in time for a bolder to sail by harmlessly to the forest below. 

Vaulting down the mountain Sesshoumaru landed them on a rock surrounded by a gurgling stream and they watched together as his father raged. 

It was absolutely stunning, seeing his father like this. The power he was cycling through was awe inspiring. Vicious claws dug at the mountain. A massive maw chomped at the moon in challenge. 

This was a side of his father Sesshoumaru had never seen. This was father acting like the demon he was. Part of nature. Wild. Cruel. Unbound. 

Sesshoumaru held fast to the woman in his arms. She did not seem inclined to let go either. Big tearfilled eyes looked back at him. He should have told her that he had a strong inclination of how this story of his mother’s would end. But he waited to share that information. He wanted, no needed, to know if she was crying for his mother or for him. Was she gripping his armor so tightly because of the knowledge that if his mother died today he would have never been born? Was she worried he would just disappear into the ether to have never existed? 

It was preposterous of course. He wasn’t the expert on time travel out of the two of them, but he knew for certain his mother was not dead. She would return. What they were witnessing were her last days as a demon. 

Kagome let go of him to wipe away her tears and he reluctantly loosened his hold. Tsukuyomi was half correct. The accusation stung coming from an occasional further lover. He did have interest in his brother’s intended. Always had. She was a well of untapped potential. She was an unexplored terrain. She was an unmapped landscape he had yet to piece together. 

The halfbreed squandered her. She squandered herself. She could be something great yet had settled for what? Being a wife? It was the exact thing he feared would happen to Rin. If that was what brought them happiness he supposed that was their choice, but it didn’t lessen his disappointment. Just like it hadn’t lessened his disappointment in his great and terrible father for throwing his life away for something as sentimental as love. Or his younger half-brother who was willing to become human in exchange for a humans affection. 

And he did lust after her. As he lusted for power. And potential. And untamed frontier. And a set of long slender legs. And if he were honest with himself, for companionship, for understanding, for someone to know him. He wanted to watch her flourish. Wanted to bare-witness to her rising tide. 

No, he didn’t love her. Was not sure he was even capable of the emotion. Was not sure if he cared to be considering that, by his observations, loving someone meant you gave up on yourself. Petty, small minded, fools. 

Kagome wiped away a few errant tears. When she was sure Sesshoumaru wasn’t going to fade away or disappear she loosened her grip on him. He was still holding onto her, impassively watching his father’s rampage. A slow smile building on his hard lips. Kagome tapped the hand that held her and he looked down at her like he had forgotten she was even there. Slowly, almost reluctantly, he let her stand on her own. 

“Your mom... I’m so sorry... what do you... what can I...” Kagome stammered trying to find the right words to convey, her hands fluttering in the air around him wanting to offer comfort but unsure how. ‘Sorry your mom died before you were born, hope you don’t disappear’. 

He eyed her, assessing, “Come.” Was his only reply. Then he leapt from the rock to the shore. Kagome scrambled down the side of the rock but before she set food in the stream he must have remembered her because he caught her under one arm and jumped to the sore again, this time with her. 

They stopped at a spot a little down stream where a natural pool caught un-savvy fish. Their scales gleamed from the surface and catching them would just be a matter of reaching right in there. Which is exactly what Sesshoumaru did. Stunned, Kagome watched as he went about the business of making camp, gathering logs, cleaning the fish, stoking the fire without a care in the world. All the while his father still raged in the sky above them. 

“Uh, Sesshoumaru?” Kagome had had enough when he handed her a cooked fish. As if she could eat with her stomach in this upheaval. It was already full with grief. 

“Kagome?” He responded after she went too many beats before getting to her point. 

It was a delicate topic, asking someone why they were unbothered by their mother’s death. As tactfully as she was capable at the moment, Kagome asked the tough questions. “Why aren’t you sad that your mom just died? You’re acting so cool about it.” Rip off the bandaid. 

He looked to his father to gauge whether or not he could hear them, if he could he likely wasn’t listening. “She is not dead.” Kagome watched as his face took on a new emotion, she was starting to see more of them and wondered if it was because they were alone or because she was getting used to the way his face would morph so slowly between emotions. Like watching a glacier slide. She was also realizing he took time to gather the right words, choosing them with care. “The tale I grew up with was more theatrical, as is Mother’s way, but this much I know, she will be back sometime tomorrow.” 

“I don’t understand. How is she going to get back? What about Tōga? Where did she go?” The knot in Kagome’s stomach loosened. 

“We will find out tomorrow.” Kagome caught the mischievous glint in his eyes. He looked exactly like his mother in that moment. 

Sleep was hard to come by as Tōga continued to howl. He had given up on tearing things apart at least. His grief was so heavy, but Sesshoumaru said they couldn’t tell him she would be fine, that he needed to experience this on his own. So Kagome was lying on the ground with Sesshoumaru’s pelt wrapped around her, watching him in the dancing firelight. She traced the line of his jaw to his pointed ear, down the bridge of his nose to his lips, softened in repose. He was looking up and slightly away at the stars. Firelight danced on his alabaster skin and made the magenta stripes on his cheeks and lids look black in comparison. This black and white version of him saddened her. He deserved color. 

Golden eyes caught her staring but she didn’t feel inclined to look away. She wanted to ask if what Tsukuyomi said was true, but she knew it was. That mirror had opened them both up. She felt it when they were looking at her. she feared asking him was risking his ire and would draw out the cruelty she had witnessed at the beach. His lips had grown hard again. 

Kagome didn’t remember falling asleep. She woke to the sun on her face and a vaguely remembered dreams of elegant clawed hands in her hair and on her skin and hard lips gone soft with lust. There was a melon split open and a handful of shelled nuts sitting next to her when she rolled over, but Sesshoumaru was nowhere to be found. She ate alone in silence, watching more fish make the mistake of entering the pool. An intrepid crane was waiting for them, scooping them up. 

She wondered where Sesshounaru was. Her question was answered when a howl broke the morning quiet, starling the crane into leaving his feast. Two white dogs filled the sky with barks and growls and they tumbled through the air. She watched them while she ate the sweet sticky melon. They were fighting but there was no real bite from Sesshoumaru. She thought maybe he was just giving his father a distraction. 

A series of clicks drew her attention away, it was the ‘yoooo’ sound of stone on wood that usually preceded a play. Her brows drew together as she scanned the forest around her for the source. 

The most beautiful woman Kagome had ever seen stepped out of the tree line. Her face was white, yet she wore no makeup. Her lips were bright red, her cheeks as well. She smiled, revealing her intentionally blackened teeth that made her face and lips even more shockingly colored. Her hair fell in straight glossy black waterfall down her back. Her clothes were not time appropriate, Kagome realized. She was wearing layer and after layer of silk, finely embroidered with canes, elephants, cows, lions and other animals that had yet to be known to the people of Japan. 

In her hand she held a familiar wood framed mirror. 

Tōga came crashing into the scene, snarling and snapping, but Sesshoumaru was right on his tail and before he could reach the ground the larger dog had a grip on his neck and drove him into the dirt. Tōga struggled, but Sesshoumaru was bigger and stronger. And more persistent. They both transformed leaving Sesshoumaru with a boot pressed to the back of Tōga’s neck still holding him firmly in place. 

“Uzume.” Sesshoumaru greeted. Kagome bowed, even though Sesshoumaru himself did not.  
When she looked back up a woman stepped from the mirror. 

A moment ago Kagome was convinced Uzume was the most beautiful woman she had ever seen, but by comparison this new woman dwarfed her. Her beauty was difficult to look at directly in spite of the rot that overtook half of her face or the yellowed exposed bone of her jaw. Kagome was forced to look to the side and view her peripherally. Next to her was a towering white dog whose tongue lulled in a canine approximation of a smile.

This God Sesshoumaru did deign worthy of a bow. He went to his knees, one still holding Tōga in place. With a hand on the back of Kagome’s head he took her down with him, pressing her face to the soil. She barely caught a glimpse of the white dog that stood with her. “Izanami” he supplied in a low reverent tone before Kagome could do something as uncouth as ask. 

Kagome was able to turn her head to the side to watch him even though he wouldn’t allow her to look at the God. A sound filled the space around them, inside of her. The sound of thousands of souls screaming. The death rattle of the last breath. The silence of water closing overhead. The pang of an empty stomach. The scrape of metal through skin and bone. The flap of corvid wings. The crackle of burning flesh. It was the sound of death and while both Kagome and Tōga struggled to cover their ears against the hollow pain that reverberated in their heads, Sesshoumaru just nodded. When the sound stoped Kagome wiped tears away from her eyes and her hand came away stained with blood. 

Sesshoumaru’s grip on them both eased when the God was gone, leaving only Sesshoumaru’s mother behind. She was naked except the heavy pendant nestled between her breasts. Her aura felt wrong. Different. Youki was bleeding away from her, very slowly being replaced by something else. Kagome strained to feel it, but it felt like nothing. That same nothing that Sesshoumaru had described as divine. 

Tōga practically leapt to his feet and scooped her up in his arms. Their lips crashed together. When he pulled back they both looked confused, then slightly offended, then Sesshoumaru’s mother grabbed him by the face and pulled him back to her. 

Sensing the scene was about to go from PG-13 to NC-17 real soon Kagome looked away and realized Uzume was still there. The ‘yoooo’ sound rang out again and the God turned the mirror in Kagome’s direction. She felt time pulling at her and reached for Sesshoumaru just in time to be sucked in.


	10. Ten

Chapter 10

They were back in that room that held only the mirror. Sesshoumaru tested the air then disappeared, leaving Kagome alone to navigate her way out of the endless halls. His youki was a beacon she followed to the courtyard where his mother was draped over throne and they spoke in low agitated whispers. 

“My Little Treat! What a delight to see you again. What has it been Sesshoumaru dear, 900 years?” She tapped a long delicate gold tipped pipe against her lips. 

“Give or take.” Petulance radiated from his tone as he watched his mother with a narrowed gaze. His hands were clenched, white knuckled at his sides. 

“You knew.” Then as the implications set in, “you knew!” Kagome’s clenched fists came to rest on her hips. 

“Of course I knew. Do you think I could not scent my own son, even if he had not yet been born?” 

“You’re not a demon. This place is The Moon?” Kagome gestured to the floating palace around them. The gateway to the afterlife. 

“Do catch up love. I have not been a demon for a very long time and yes this is The Moon, which I won fair and square. Your participation did not go unnoticed.” She looked quite pleased with herself. 

Kagome looked between the two. Mother and Son, so alike in appearance yet so different in demeanor. More implications pressed in. If she knew then surely, “Tōga-“ Kagome’s temper flared. 

The Western Lady stopped her, “a simple spell. He remembered only what he needed to. I am curious Little Treat, why are you so angry? Is it for my son? Does his father’s treatment of him bother you?” 

“He was so focused on changing him. Did he really know him? Why couldn’t he appreciate him for who he was?” 

The Western Lady tapped her lip, her regard heavy as she spoke, “do you think he would be better off remaining the angry creature he was when you met a scant few years ago?” 

She could feel Sesshounaru’s eyes on her as well. She wasn’t doing this right. They weren’t understanding her. She thought back to that first meeting in his father’s tomb. To those early fights between him and his brother. “He was angry, sure. But there has always been more to him.” Has anyone ever given him the benefit of the doubt? Has anyone ever just loved him? She didn’t ask out loud. The questions hung in the air anyway and the Western Lady seemed to hear them. Her mischievous grin slipped away for just a moment and Kagome got a peek of the timeless being that existed behind her eyes. 

“Leave me now. I am positively spent.” She looked away from them both in dismissal. 

Kagome wasn’t done. There was still unfinished business, “where were you? We came here looking for you in the first place.” 

She sighed, heavy and dramatically. “In time you will learn that my son is prone to fits of anxiety. I was with a lover. He knows I leave this realm from time to time.” 

Kagome wanted to laugh. And cry. “The gates were sealed Mother. I called to you and you did not come.” Sesshoumaru growled beside her. 

“Yah! That dog was pinned with holy arrows!” Kagome shared his indignation. 

“Foreplay,” she dismissed with a wave of delicate claws. “A fine pair you make. Such unimaginative bedfellows.” 

Sesshoumaru bristled but turned to leave. Kagome had to run to catch up to him. He grabbed for her arm but she evaded. “Can we not go by light ball? Please?” At his cocked brow she elaborated “it’s... moist” 

Youkai gathered around them, building, until a cloud formed at his feet. One arm pulled her close and she held tight to his armor as he glided them to the ground. 

They made the trek back at a human pace. Sesshoumaru didn’t seem to be in a hurry and Kagome enjoyed having the time to decompress from the weirdness of the past week. Just before nightfall a chilling rain set it, a preview of what winter would have in store for them. Sesshoumaru found them a shallow cave to hole up in for the night, but not before Kagome was soaked. 

Before the underbrush got too damp she managed to scrounge up enough dry wood for a fire. Sesshoumaru started it with a scratch of his claws against stone while Kagome stripped out of the topmost layer and set it to dry. 

They sat in silence as the darkness set in. Kagome found herself studying him. She appreciated his stillness. That was what she she had come to see it as, not void, rather stillness in waiting between. Waiting for the next thing to happen. 

She felt irreverent when she had to break that stillness for her own selfish curiosity. “You mom never told me her name. What is it?” 

Golden eyes looked to her. He sighed, hundreds of long suffering years were buried in his heavy exhale. Then he laughed, and Kagome didn’t feel like an outsider looking in anymore. That laugh was for her. “When I was young I told another her name. My Mother told me if she ever felt her name fall from the lips of another, especially a human, she would rip my cock off and shove it so far down my throat I would never speak again.” 

There was something so wrong in the word ‘cock’ falling from Sesshoumaru’s lips. Kagome laughed, the kind of laugh that just kept rolling like an escalator, no begging or end. “Why?” She managed to choke out. She hadn’t laughed like that in a long time. 

“She believes that she can be summoned or become beholden to another if they know her name. My mother is a superstitious fool.” 

Bits and pieces of myths and legends and traditions floated around in Kagome’s mind. “If your mom is a God-“ 

“Do not give her so much credit” Sesshoumaru interrupted, but Kagome waved his concern away. She was on to something big. 

“If your mom was ... something else, before you were born and your dad was a demon, doesn’t that make you a half-breed of sorts?” Sesshoumaru’s head cocked to side and he looked through her with deadly precision. Then to her surprise and disappointment he simply shrugged and settled back against the cave wall, back into his stillness. Annoying Sesshoumaru was only fun when he actually got annoyed. 

Later that evening, well after dark, the rain finally let up and Sesshoumaru disappeared from the cave only to reappear moments later with two fat pheasants. Kagome plucked them but when it came time to clean them the only tool she had was an arrow. Sesshoumaru took over, making quick work of them with his claws. Kagome gathered some sticks and made a decent spit-roast for the birds. 

Grateful for the meal, she settled into the silence to eat. She was licking succulent fat off her fingers when she noticed Sesshoumaru was raising a piece of meat to his mouth. “Wow, I haven’t seen you eat this whole time. I was starting to think you didn’t.” She laughed at herself. 

His hand snapped away from his mouth and he looked at that piece of meat like it was a greatest offense. His lips took a hard turn down as he threw it into the fire and wiped the juice on Kagome’s sleeve. “I do not eat human food.” 

“Humans eat everything. No matter what you eat it could be considered human food.” Since he wasn’t going to eat it she started on the second bird. 

“You misunderstand. I do not eat food from humans.” At her questioning look he elaborated. “There are legends on my kind who have become enslaved to humans through offerings of food. This one will not be kept so.” 

She was familiar with the tale. “Have you ever known anyone that happened to?” 

He was quite for a moment. Contemplative. Kagome wondered how he kept all his years of knowledge and experience organized in his mind. Finally he answered “No.” and she had him. 

“Hm, you’re a little superstitious too then. Must run in the family.” She didn’t expect his rich laughter that filled the cave. She memorized the sound, the way it felt low in her belly, saving it for later because she doubted she would ever hear it again. 

That night she dreamed of claws on her lips, pulling food from her mouth, and deep rich laughter.

It was around midday when the forest started to feel familiar. The villagers had long feared the area they called Inuyasha’s Forest. The trees felt alive, they said they could hear whispers and worse things the deeper they went. To Kagome it felt like home. 

There was a crash in the canopy and Inuyasha came barreling down at them, sword drawn, ready for a fight, screaming her name. Kagome was torn from Sesshoumaru’s side and pulled into strong arms. She buried her face in the familiar fire-rat robes and held him back. 

“You son of a bitch! If you hurt her-“ 

“Inuyasha I’m fine. He was a perfect gentleman.” Inuyasha sheathed his sword and took her face in his hands searching her for any sign of damage. He patted her down and pulled her sleeves up, pausing at the bandages still on her wrists. “I’m fine” she asserted, pulling them back down. 

She wrestled herself out of his embrace to turn to Sesshoumaru to tell him... what? ‘Please don’t go?’ ‘Don’t be a stranger.’ ‘I’m going to miss you.’ But, he was already walking away. 

“Keh, asshole. Where have you been? It’s been over a week?”

Kagome looped their arms together, leading them back to the village. “Oh, Inuyasha, I have so much to tell you...”


	11. Eleven

Chapter 11 

Things were good with Inuyasha after that. She told him what she needed. All the things that scared her to say out loud. All the things that made her feel guilty, that she, like Kikyo, was trying to change him. But, that wasn’t the case, she realized. They were things she wanted to do for her. 

They started traveling more. Having adventures. 

They sought out hanyou, especially orphans, and brought them back to the village that Jinenji and Shiori had come to call home along with Inuyasha. 

They made love in a meadow full of wild flowers that made the field look like it was on fire in the sunset. It was...ok. 

They started planning their wedding in earnest. 

Sesshoumaru’s words that night on the beach had left a scar though. 

Three months later when they decided mutually that maybe it wasn’t going to work out. Kagome was disappointed but not surprised. The lackluster end to her first love was not nearly proportionate to the amount of trouble she went through to have it. She had traveled 500 years into the past and it just ended with a perfectly reasonable mural breakup. 

After the breakup Kagome went what she called ‘full Kikyō’. At first she sought training from different shrines. She realized that while she had the raw power, her 20th century sensibilities made it impossible to go around telling people their insomnia was due to someone walking on their great grandpa’s grave rather than the stress of preparing for the winter. The constant headache was dehydration rather than a curse laid upon their line because they cut down the wrong tree to build their house. People weren’t willing to hear her perfectly reasonable solutions to their problems.

She tried going from one war torn region to the next, patching up soldiers and helping them recover from the mental strain battle had put on them, but medical stuff was kind of gross without modern conveniences like anesthesia and antibiotics.

It took a year or two, but she finally found her niche in teaching children. Her favorite was teaching little girls to read and write. She had to do it under the guise of spiritual training, but it was rewarding. These village girls were just seen as future wives. Learning how to read, how to share ideas, how to lean new things, made her feel more powerful than a bow and arrow ever did. She would stay in a village for about three months before moving on and circling back around later. Edo remained her safe haven though. 

She looked for Sesshoumaru everywhere. A couple of times she felt his aura, brief touches that told her he was nearby. But never anything substantial. Never the scenarios that played out in her imagination where he sought her out and told her he missed her and they went on adventures together.

Three years after going back in time with Sesshoumaru Kagome sat in Sango’s house letting her best friend fuss over dressing her. The kimono she wore were too fine for her. Layer upon layer of silk draped over her shoulders, weighing her down, making her feel like she was playing dress up. She didn’t even own anything so fine. She had to borrow the silks from Rin. It was her wedding after all. 

Kagome had gotten into town late and feared being late for the ceremony, although she knew Rin wouldn’t mind, seeing as the girl was about three months late for her own wedding. 

“How did Sesshoumaru take the news? I wish I had been here to see that!” Kagome’s laugh was cut off when Sango pulled the obi she was tying too tight. 

“Oh ho, touchy subject. Sesshoumaru-sama took the news of Rin’s pregnancy well. You know he has always valued and respected her choices.” Miroku struggled with his daughter’s unruly hair, speaking with a hairpin held firmly between his lips. “It is a trait that has always surprised me from the daiyoukai. He truly understands autonomy.” 

“He’s too indulgent with her. Always has been.” Sango’s ministrations we’re growing rougher as she spoke. 

“It was my dear Sango who didn’t take the news well.” Sango had a few choice words to describe Rin that she mumbled for Kagome’s ears only. “Kohaku is just as responsible my love.” 

“Yes, but he is a responsible young man-“ Kagome could smell a fight brewing and tried for a quick subject change. 

“What do the books look like Miroku?” Sango tugged a little too hard at Kagome’s hair but let it be. 

“Ah, lets see.” The monk flipped through a book, Kagome noticed it was fashioned much like the spiral bound books she used to bring, but made of bamboo and parchment. ‘R.I.P.’ she gave a moment of silence to one of the few remaining familiar things from her time. “Best odds on first to cry are with You, My dearest Sango, and Jaken. In that order. Least likely to shed tears it looks like Inuyasha, then a tie between Sesshoumaru-sama and Lady Kaede. We have strong odds in favor of both Inuyasha and my dearest drinking too much. Ah, and bets on Inuyasha starting a fight with his half-brother are high.” 

“6 ryu on Kaede crying in the first 3. And another 10 on Jaken having too much to drink. 10 more on Sesshoumaru becoming intoxicated as well.” Kagome shook the coin purse on the table and Miroku fished out what he needed while sucking his teeth. 

“Ch-ch-Ch is it even possible for a daiyoukai of Sesshoumaru’s strength to become intoxicated?” 

“I assure you it is.” 

Wedding ceremonies were typically small affairs, just vow exchanges and a priestess to bless the couple, but this had become a village affair. The ward of a daiyoukai marrying the last active demon slayer. The buzz about town was that the union may even be blessed by the attendance of a celestial being! Besides the usual demonic entourage that hung around, there was a rumor that an entire wolf pack may come to pay homage to the bride. The villagers who had once feared demons had slowly been desensitized by the constant presence of demon and hanyou alike it seemed. 

Kagome was dying to see Sesshoumaru. Sango had made sure she looked her best, but was blind to why it was so important. The layers of kimono were beautiful, of course, second hand from Sesshoumaru himself. Laid out flat there was a scenery on the top layer of Mount Fuji in the winter, snow capped and white in the stillness of night. Sango had pulled her hair back in a neat quaff and pinned it with beautiful ivory and gold hairpins that Kagome had picked up some years ago. Bits of jade golden bells dangled off the ends and chimed gently when she walked. She felt beautiful, still herself, but more. Fancy. 

“Oi, you look nice.” Inuyasha said as he took her arm for the procession that led through town. Kaede led, incense swinging to purify the path, then Sango and Miroku walked arm in arm followed by Kagome and Inuyasha with Sesshoumaru and his mother, Jaken trailing them, and then the bride and groom.

“Thank you, I’m glad you guys could make it.” Kagome nodded to his new girlfriend, a nice young panther hanyou who treated him like he placed the stars himself. 

“We’ve been staying here lately. Kaede is getting on in age.” The old miko turned her good eye over her shoulder narrowed at the hanyou. 

Kagome laughed through the pang of guilt that hit right in her heart. She should have been there more. Checked on Kaede more. She vowed she would going forward. 

The march through town was slow and meandering, stopping for villagers to give their blessings. Kagome could feel Sesshoumaru behind her. His power licked at her and she chanced a look back, their eyes met and he nodded curtly. He looked exactly the same in red and white with his armor and swords. Beside him his mother winked and blew a kiss to Kagome. 

It was Kaede who cried first while she performed the ceremony. Kagome managed to not cry at all, but she could have sworn she saw Sesshoumaru’s mom swipe delicately at her regal face. Inuyasha pretended to rub his eyes out of boredom but Kagome knew the truth. Jaken sobbed through most of the affair, absolutely inconsolable. 

“The village is having a feast, will you stay? I know you won’t eat, but it could be fun anyway.” Kagome caught Sesshoumaru after the ceremony when the newlyweds had started their trek back through the village. 

“If you wish.” 

“I do!” Kagome, shocked at his answer, startled herself with how quickly she replied. “I mean, that would be very nice. I am sure Rin would appreciate the time with you.” 

He simply nodded then he and his mother disappeared. Kouga had made an appearance sometime while they were getting dressed it seemed. She assumed it was him anyway given the large amount of fresh game that had been left for the feast. She was glad she didn’t see him. While things had ended amicably with Inuyasha the same could not be said for the brief rebound fling she had with the wolf prince. 

Wedding celebrations like this weren’t widespread, but the slayer tradition included a large community feast. Kagome was excited, it had been awhile since she had a good meal. Kohaku and Rin were seated high on a platform overseeing the festivities while Kagome and the rest of the close friends and family were at a low table directly in front. As trays of food were brought to the table Sesshoumaru and his mother reappeared. Sesshoumaru took the seat across from Kagome, beside Miroku and Sango. His mother didn’t sit, she draped herself next to Kagome, half way on the table, half on Kagome.

Kagome was engaged in an animated conversation with Shippo about his latest antics at the academy when the Western Lady brought a piece of meat to Kagome’s mouth. At a loss for anything better to do, she accepted it. Inuyasha and his girlfriend paused in their similar feeding of each other, disgust clearly written on the hanyou’s face. Sango balked, Miroku raised a brow, and Shippo blushed. Kagome happened a glance at Sesshoumaru. He blinked. Very slowly. 

Kagome reached for the red clay jug and poured generous amount of the demonic strength sake that Miroku had procured for their guests. She half expected Sesshoumaru to decline it the way he did food, but he drank it down almost absently. Slowly he turned to Miroku and actually imitated a conversation about human philosophy. 

“Tell me how you have been my Treat.” The Western Lady pulled Kagome’s attention from her son. She poured Kagome a cup which she returned the favor, but the Western Lady pushed her cup to her son with a quick shake of her head. He drank it more slowly this time. 

Kagome filled the western lady in on her recent adventures and highlighted some of the best things over the past three years. Occasionally she would refill her cup or hold a nugget of food to her mouth. In turn Kagome continued to keep Sesshoumaru’s glass full. Around the 6th pour he turned the cup over. The daiyoukai’s looked languid. Relaxed. Miroku raised a brow at Kagome who winked in return. She won two of the bets so far. 

“My dear son tells me you have traveled as far as the southern shore. And alone! That must be quite frightening for a human woman.” Kagome cocked her head at the son in question. How had he known that? The few times she thought she had felt his presence it was in the west. He pointedly ignored her in favor of Miroku who was flustered himself by the daiyoukai’s attention. 

“Ah, it’s been fine. I think the only time I was really scared was when I was very briefly kidnapped by a group of bandits. But they left me overnight. It was odd.” She recalled. They had taken her with intent to sell her to settle a debt to a red light district. Halfway to the providence they had to drug her after two days of struggle. She woke alone in a cave. 

Inuyasha’s ears swiveled her way. “What group was it?” He had been cataloging various bandit groups and eliminating the ones who were out of hand in the area. 

“Red Dragon, I think. Maybe Golden Crane?” She remembered seeing both emblems carved into their makeshift armor. 

“Great. I’ll fuckin clean them both up next time I see them.” He bristled next to her. The sweet hanyou next to him patted his hand and soothed his back. 

“They are already dead.” Sesshoumaru continued his conversation as if he hadn’t spoken at all. 

The Western Lady held a sticky sweet to her lips and she ate it, watching Sesshoumaru with narrowed eyes. 

“Tell me of your romantic endeavors. I am certain there is a line of suitors at each village. Have you let a woman taste your flesh yet? The journey must be lonely.” Three sets of male eyes turned to her and Shippo decided it was time to be elsewhere excusing himself. 

“Ah-er-well,” Kagome stammered under the intense stare of the Western Lady. 

Sesshoumaru’s growl vibrated the table, “Mother.” His tone a warning. 

The Western Lady growled back. “I was not talking to you.” She turned her salacious smile to Kagome, “dear, it has been a long time since I’ve taken a lover. Please grant me the boon of living vicariously through you. Humans are so virile. Look, my hand aches from the loneliness.” She held her right hand up, wiggling her digits experimentally. Scandalized eyes from around the table looked to the lady. 

Kagome reached across the table and flipped Sesshoumaru’s cup over, filling it to the brim. He drank, nodding his thanks. 

“Oh, spare me your prudish sensibilities. You have had your hand on your young ladies supple thigh for quite awhile now.” Sharp golden eyes moved from Inuyasha to Miroku. “And you monk, have been stealthily groping your lovely wife’s delicious rear all night.” All hands were suddenly visible on the table. 

They all breathed a collective sigh of relief when Rin trotted up to the table and the Western Lady’s attention was stolen by the bride.

‘What the fuck?’ Inuyasha mouthed to Kagome but she could only shrug hiding her smile behind her sake cup. 

As the evening wore on conversations flowed and Kagome languished in the familiarity of her chosen family. Good friends made her heart swell. The sake made her head light. The lovers all around made her a little lonely. 

Tendrils of youki seemed to call to her from the woods. Frowning she looked around and found Sesshounaru gone. His mother was now draped over Sango, giving Miroku candid insights on various gods as he listed them one by one. The Western lady met her gaze and pointedly looked to the woods with a cocked brow.

Kagome slipped away, not drunk, but nearing. Just intoxicated enough to be relaxed. Just enough to be a little more bold than usual. 

Youki guided her. The power didn’t pull at her exactly, just gently suggested which direction to go. She followed. 

Sesshoumaru stood alone in a clearing looking to the almost full moon. Light bathed him, making him even more white. The ambient light that seemed to come from him all the time was more intense in the moonlight. Kagome wondered if it waxed and waned throughout the month. 

“Oh hey, uh, sorry about your mom. I think she might have been-“ Kagome stammered, some of her earlier confidence bleeding away in the overwhelming presence that was Sesshounaru. 

“She was.” He interrupted. Golden eyes met her own. 

“I think she’s trying to get Sango and Miroku to take her home.” ‘Great, talk to him about his mother’ she berated herself. 

“She is.” 

“Ah.” 

“Hn.” 

Kagome hadn’t noticed him moving closer as they talked, or maybe she was the one who had moved. Maybe it was them both. How ever it was, he was now so close that lingering uncertainty was the only things separating them. 

“Can I- I want to-“ 

“If you wish.” He didn’t let her finish. She felt a ghost of claws on the back of her neck, urging her forward. Reaching up on her tiptoes and pulling him down by his armor her lips brushed his. 

He pulled away so suddenly she assumed she had been mistaken, or he had been mistaken, or them both. “Have you been following me?” She tried to change the subject. Derail the train wreck this weird night was headed for. 

“Later.” Sesshoumaru half growled. Then his mouth was on her, devouring. His tongue sought entrance and she granted, meeting him with vigor, relishing the flavor of him in her mouth. A fang nicked her lip, her blunt teeth ran over his. Claws tangled in her hair. Chipped nails tangled in his. 

Rough bark scraped the back of her kimono, scratching the fine silk. “Sorry.” She mumbled, but he swallowed it and pulled the fabric down her arms layer by layer until she was bare in the moonlight. Claws found a nipple and she arched into his hands while his mouth worked its way down her throat to the other breast. 

A dark forest path opened in her mind. Lush green trees were illuminated by the familiar pink hued light of her reiki. A thick fog was rolling in. Lust, want, need, desire, passion, loneliness licked at her ankles and calves working it’s way up until it was all she could see. She choked on the strength of it. 

Golden eyes were searching her. Weighing her. “That should not work on humans. Only lesser demons. Like Jaken.”

Kagome could feel the vibrations of his words against her lips as she worked her way along the solid line of his jaw to his pointed ear that she had to strain to reach. “Stop talking.” She whispered before running her teeth along the pointed tip. He lifted her off the ground, wrapping her legs around him. 

His armor was too hard and she struggled with the ties to no avail. Belatedly Kagome realized this wasn’t his normal armor. Elaborate swirls were etched into the leather body. “Who wears armor to a wedding?” She asked around a growl of her own. 

“Stop talking.” He parroted back before working on the ties himself. Her feet touched the ground for a moment as he released her long enough for the armor to fall away, followed by the rest of his clothes. She had a moment to appreciate his sculpted chest then he shrugged into her thighs like a shirt, lifting her higher until his face was at her core. 

“Did you compare me to Jaken?” His answering growl, so near her most sensitive area, sent her head back into the tree and she decided it would be best to stop talking. 

His claws gripped her rear a little too hard when he realized she wasn’t wearing any undergarments and he had free reign to bury his face between her slick folds. Looking for purchase for her hands she finally landed on his head. Pushing him away and pulling him closer simultaneously as she took the pleasure he gave. 

She came fast. Her orgasm stole the breath from her lungs, her body bucking against the tree and him. 

He lowered her down slowly, like he was letting her go. Kagome wasn’t done yet, and latched onto his waist with strong toned legs from years of walking across the rugged landscape. She ground against him, and that was all the permission he needed. 

In one clean stroke Sesshoumaru buried himself to the hilt inside of Kagome. She could feel the aftershocks of her orgasm still pursuing around him as he paused for a moment then pulled all the way out, painfully slowly, and slammed all the way back in. Her hips jerked, trying to meet his thrusts, but the tree at her back and the hand cupping her ass made it neigh impossible. 

She was on that dark forest path. A mist of pleasure soaked into her skin, sank into every pore. Drenched her to the core. The emotion was too big for this body and too complex for the other. 

It’s just the overflow, she realized then, as she slid back into her body, their combined pleasure still echoing through her, she came again screaming into his mouth. He followed a second later, his growl reverberating through her entire body and pulling another orgasm from her. 

Spent and panting he lowered her slowly to the ground. Kagome’s knees buckled, but he caught her and lowered them both. The ever present fur on his shoulder cushioned them both as they laid in the cools grass under the tree. 

They laid there panting in the aftermath of their coupling. Sesshoumaru breathed them in. They smelled like sex and sweat and spent passion. This was his favorite part of the act, the after. Those few moments filled with flaccid cocks, heaving chests, flush breasts, clouded eyes, tired hands sticky with seed and sometimes blood. When two scents became so overlaid, so entwined, that there was no way to separate them. 

He kept her close, half thinking she would pull away and leave immediately, full of shame. She seemed inclined to stay for the moment. She was flush against his side , no him no her just they. He traced her hip. Memorized the shape I’m his hands. Committed it it memory in the event that this were a one time event. Up her side, over ribs that were almost too pronounced, the underside of her breast. Her nipples were dusky, those had long been his favorite. She was tracing the dips and ridges of his torso in the same way. Was she memorizing them or was it simply idle movements to fill moments? 

Chancing a glance at her face he caught her looking at him as well. Not his eyes, she was tracing his jawline with her eyes. Her teeth worried against her swollen lip. 

“Have you been following me?” Her breathing had evened out. Their eyes met for a moment, but he looked away, back to the sky. 

“No.” He replied. It was not a lie. He had not been following her, exactly. He had sought her out often over the past few years though. Distinctly different than following. Following implied he was doing it for her, rather he was searching her out for his own sake. To slake his own curiosity. To learn enough to find fault. Instead he found himself fascinated. 

She slapped his stomach lightly, pulling him back into the moment. “Ah! I get it. Let’s try this then: have you been appearing peripherally to my locations, at regular intervals, over the last couple of years? Intentionally?” 

He narrowed his eyes. She was sharp. “Yes.” He replied truthfully. He found himself eager to follow her thought process. 

“Hm, ok. And were you there for your benefit or mine?” Her question was loaded. He would have to be strategic in his reply. 

“Yes.” Her hand left his stomach to rub heavily against her face and fist in the hair at her temple. He mourned it’s loss. A frustrated growl escaped her. 

“You’re exhausting!” It was not his prowess as a lover she was referencing but he preened anyway, running claws through his hair. “Why Sesshoumaru? Why all of this?” 

He shrugged one shoulder. There were no answers that words could express. They were inadequate. Tsukuyomi usually spoke in poetry allowing the recipient the ability to define the emotion. Sesshoumaru longed for their ability. She had felt though, that overflowing well of emotion, while they came together. She felt it. He experienced her and she experienced him back and forth like two mirrors positioned facing one another. 

She was deep in thought, once again tracing his stomach to his chest. “That forest path...” interesting that she should see it as such. Interesting, really, that she saw or felt anything at all. An event worthy of further postulation. Not at the moment though, not while she stroked the sensitive stripes at his hip with her feather-light touches. 

“That was-“ 

“Your feelings.” She interrupted. He shrugged. She slapped him again, harder this time as right over a marking. His cock jerked, aroused once more.

“I think,” she admitted pensively, “I would like to do this again sometime.” Their eyes met and he felt the truth in her words. Smelled the longing. 

“If you wish.” Sesshoumaru replied pushing her back with his body and burying himself between her thighs once more.


	12. Extra

Stealth was of the utmost importance. She could have put the guards to sleep. If she had been paying attention to mother when she thought her spells. She might have been able to poison them. If she had been listening to father when he taught her how use the poison claw. Those lessons had been a bore though. She was more powerful than both her parents. She had been born into two forms while they only had one. Stealth was what she relied on in times like these. Stealth she was capable of in this smaller lithe body. 

She slipped from one dark pocket to the next, working her way to the prize at the back of the cave fortress. The occupants of the fortress were busy with another one of their petty skirmishes leaving their treasures almost unguarded. ‘Pity’ she smiled as she finally found the room she was looking for. Silk woven by demonic hands and made of demon webs hung from wall to wall. Each was it’s own work of art. She persued her selection carefully, stopping to feel the cool material along her fingertips, bringing them to her lips to feel them against the more sensitive skin there. 

The clothes she wore now were rough and didn’t change with her when she transformed. They were ill fitted to her status. Simple trousers and a top made of scratchy jute were the best her parents could do when faced with a child who needed to wear more than her fur. It was a forgivable offense. 

She found the one she came for. It was made for the head matriarch of the silver inu, matron of all their lines. The kimono hung all the way to the back of the hall, framed by everblooming branches of Sakura. The colors accentuated her markings nicely and would make her eyes stand out against the pale purple neckline. 

“You know, if you had taken any others they would not have noticed. Looks like you have your eyes on the big prize though, thief.” Slowly, carefully, she removed the kimono from its stand and turned to the intruder. 

He was young, maybe her age. Inu, her nose confirmed. She should have smelled him when he came in, should have felt his youki, but somehow she missed it. No, she was better than that, she could feel every youki in the area except his. Prodding with her own it was clear that despite his bland markings and brutish look he did have some ability. If he could smother his youki and scent to that extent, she wondered what else she was misjudging. 

He wore the armor of a soldier, and not one of rank or merit. A sword was gripped in his hand awkwardly. Likely he relied on tooth and claw. His smile was genuine, mischievous, contagious. She thought to maybe steal that too. 

Hands on her hips she took a power stance and spoke with the confidence she had earned through sheer will. “Thief? How dare you low-born scum. Is it stealing for me to take what is rightfully mine? These robes belong to the matriarch of the silver inu and she is I by right of power.” She cracked her knuckles and allowed the poison to flow to the surface. Uncontrollable it answered her call and she was forced to throw her hand out and expel it. A rank cloud of melted silk filled the space between them which she used as cover to make her escape. It was an accident but a fortuitous one. 

Strong arms wrapped around her and pulled her back before she could reach the door. “You dare lay hands on me you vile beast!” Her teeth sank into his flesh and he dropped her with a muffled curse. 

“You bitch! They’ll kill you when they catch you. Leave the robes and I’ll let you go. I would hate to see a pretty face wasted.” There was not a chance in hell she was letting the robe go. It belonged to her by right or trickery. She was the most powerful born in generations. Now she may have been a little above average, but she was still growing. She was already more powerful than the last matriarch. That bitch gained her title through marriage not strength or cunning. 

The guard let her go and she warily backed away toward the door. “Can’t go that way, they are coming.” He was right, she could hear their boots on the floor. At least 15. He gestured to a slit in the wall that hardly served as a window. She edged her way to it and looked down the sheer drop. “You can wiggle out of there but there is no way to make it with the robe. It’s too big to carry and climb down. Too far to jump.” She could tell by his stupid smirk that he thought he had her. 

He did not know her might. Gathering her youki she let it tear her and the robe apart, disappearing through the slit in a ball of light. 

—————-

She watched the man who would be her son stand guard over the priestess who feigned sleep. She was glad he was so mighty. His strength was testament to her own. She was equally troubled by who his father was. 

She watched Tōga through narrowed eyes. She was talking to the daiyoukai about the sword resting on his lap. And what a sword! Perfection indeed. He was a long time companion. He was her right hand. Her yang. She could not imagine wanting him carnally. Then he smiled and she thought maybe she could 

He was an idiot though. He had not even questioned her easy acceptance of their ‘alliance’. Their story was riddled with holes. A second son? Traveling companions? They had not even provided why they would be traveling together. 

Her curiosity about their origins had been quelled by the touch of divine they both carried. There were more questions yet, particularly her someday son. He carried it in his blood where the woman carried her just below the skin. His was hardly detectable, buried under the massive strength of his youki. The woman’s was an oddity. It rested with her, dormant. She likely didn’t even know it was there. She vowed ask her lover. 

———————

She knelt to the stream to wash the blood from her hands. She was immensely pleased that she needn’t bother washing it off her robes, they never seemed to hold dirt, or blood, or melt under her poison. The moment she had put them on they had shrunk to fit her body as if they were meant for her. 

She had spent the last month practicing her poison claw. The embarrassment of that guard seeing her failure was motivation to work harder at perfection than she had in the past. She wished for her father’s help, but knew better than to seek him out. 

Picking viscera from under her claws she felt his approach this time, but feigned ignorance to see what he he would do. 

“You could at least not parade around in it.” A dead boar landed on the beach beside her and she nudged it away with a foot. He was perched on a rock tearing meat from the bone. Blood stained his hands and face as he ate. “Have some. You could use some meat on your bones.” 

She would never eat from another. “I provide for myself.” She moved past the boar carcass to square off with him. He was still wearing his armor but his drab clothing had been replaced with white silk and a fur cape manifested of his true form. It looked ridiculous. 

“It was a good thing no one saw the thief, but there are soldiers scouring these parts looking for them. They are bound to catch you if you flaunt it.” He licked the blood from his claws through a lascivious grin. 

“Are you here to capture me then?” She could take him down and she knew it. He may be larger, but he was ordinary with none of the special attribute she held. His brute strength meant nothing compared to her poison claws. 

He studied her with his head cocked to the side, “nah I do not think I will. What’s your name kid? I’m Tōga.” 

There was not a single chance in hell or earth that she would give a man her name. “You can call me your Queen.” 

———————— 

She had thought to have a moment alone with her future son to ply him for information but the man was a silent tempest. A petulant silent tempest. They had crept into Amaterasu’s realm successfully. He was as apt at disguising his aura as his father and silent on foot as she. She was impressed. She even enjoyed the petulance in his tone. 

There was a lot of subtext between him and the priestess that was impossible to navigate without more of their story. It only took the suggestion of a spell to ply the woman’s lips open about her other son. She doubted she was strong enough for a spell to work on this one. Though she knew someday she would be.

How had they come to this point where he so obviously pined after this woman and she did not seem to see him at all? He seemed very put out by everything and she wondered if he really was being inconvenienced or was he acting so for the woman’s attention. The woman was smart, maybe mentally, but definitely emotionally. Having her bright attention was surely a heady feeling. 

“Sesshoumaru is such an odd name. Who did you say your sire was again?” She was toying with him. Tōga and his woman had been gone for a day now and the daiyoukai, her son, was hopelessly agitated. She wondered if it was being separated from his woman or father that had him so riled. 

“Tsukimaru, my mother is Cho from the continent.” He rattled off distractedly as they made their way through the sun God’s lair. Oh, he was good. Cho was a distant aunt. She had been missing for centuries, and Tsukimaru was a distant cousin of Tōga’s, exiled to the southern most isle. 

“Interesting. I had not known they were together.” 

Taking the robe was far too simple. Amaterasu was childlike in the dawn making her less aware of her surroundings. Once it was secured they flew as far from the mountain as possible to wait Tōga and the priestesses return. They each killed their own meal, and she felt gratified that he would not accept her offer of food freely. She had done a good job raising him. 

“This brother of yours, what is the true reason he allows his woman to wonder with the likes of you?” She lit her pipe and handed it to him. 

He pondered for a moment then a pleased grin spread across his face. “I do not believe he would be able to stop her even if he tried. She is terribly willful in this one’s experience.” 

“Well then why not claim her for your own? Clearly you have less than good will toward your sibling, it is obvious in your tone.” 

He tapped the pipe against his lip, the same as she would have were she contemplating something. “I do not think she would amenable to being ‘claimed’, as you so crudely put it, by anyone.” 

“So she requires cajoling then. As luck would have it that is my specialty.” She studied her nails casually. Nails attached to hands that were capable of spells to bend the woman’s will. Claws with poison that could put her to sleep. The implied threat was not lost on her son. At his growl she laughed inside but schooled her face to a scowl that reflected his own. This sense of chivalry must have come from Tōga. 

_____________

The barred prison that carried her swayed back and forth across the rugged terrain. She was pitched from side to side with nothing to hold on to and her hands bound. The beast pulling it finally gave up when it got too rocky. The badger demon, her captor, ripped her roughly from the mobile cell and threw to to the ground before killing the ox for no other reason than he had the impudence to be unable to navigate rocky earth. 

The badger tore the silver chains from her legs so she could walk and hauled her to her feet. “No funny business or I’ll kill you like that dumb ox.” His rank breath skittered over her ear, spittle fell from his lips as he spoke. 

Her robes had fallen open, exposing her breasts to the chilled air but she could do nothing about it with her hands so tightly wrapped in more silver chains. His gaze lingered there long enough to send a chill down her spine and then they were moving and she no longer had time to think about it. 

There was a rustle in the forest canopy. A familiar aura touched her and he rolled her eyes. She hoped he wasn’t about to do what she thought. 

True to form he fell through the canopy cleanly slicing the badger’s head form his neck. Blood sprayed her face and chest. She rolled her eyes. “What is wrong with you?” She asked the Tōga who looked absolutely pleased with himself. 

“I rescued you?” He noticed her exposed breasts and tried to pull her robes together. She slapped his hand away then slipped out of the silver bindings and shrugged her robes back into place. 

“I assure you that you did not. Have you any idea how hard it was to get that badger to kidnap me? It took months!” She kicked the miserable corpse. 

“He was going to sell you to a bathhouse!” He was still fussing over her, wiping the blood from her face with his ridiculous fur. She slapped his hand away again. 

“That was the point. The stone guardians of that bathhouse are impossible to pass, he was my way in and now he is dead you brash fool! How many times must I tell you to stop following me? Don’t you have something to guard?” His audacity grated on her nerves. He had ‘rescued’ her about half a dozen times in the last few years. She felt his aura around her at the strangest times. No one had ever endeavored to protect her before and the feeling that act inspired was unwelcome. It felt like a collar. 

“You could thank me.” He grumbled while crouching down to search the body at his feet. 

“There is not a force in any realm that could make me thank the likes of you. I will die before the words fall from these lips.” She hissed. 

“You say that, but the way I see it you could use the help. A friend maybe?” He looked at her with such earnest concern that she wanted to accept his favor. 

“Entrapments.” She hopped to the top of her cell and searched through the trunk full of badger belonging that was secured there. She hoped to find a sigil or key of some sort that would let them past the stone guards. 

“You’re all alone. Friends are a good thing. Everyone needs allies.” She did not. She would not be enslaved as her parents were. Bound by duty, honor, and magic. 

“I do not.” 

“What about a pack then? Love maybe?” He had found something on the badger’s body and rose to his feet with a leather bound necklace, there was a slight power from it and she hoped maybe it would work, but there was only one way to find out. Tōga tossed her the badgers coin purse. 

“Cages with bars made of sentiment for fools.” She started to walk away in the direction of the boathouse and Tōga followed. 

“What are you stealing from the bathhouse? I hear they are known for their woman, but I can’t imagine you would be out for that.” He laughed and she shot him a raised brow. 

“They have a great deal of wealth.” He looked surprised at her reply. Looping his hands behind his head the was blessedly quite for a moment. 

“I must say I am surprised that wealth is your goal.” Disappointment laced his tone. This was an opportunity to turn him away, but instead she told him the truth. 

“It is not wealth I am after. The demon who holds the primordial soil is.” His sigh of relief was worse than his disappointment. “I need it to trade for sorcery lessons from a God.” She would not approach a God without a trade. She had evaded their capture for centuries, since her parents spirited her away from their home when her power became too great. The soil was more of a threat than a payment but he needn’t know that. 

“Sorcery huh? I’ve never met a dog with magic.” She sighed and made a few hand gestures paired with sacred phrases. The wind picked up his hair a little but that was it, the extent of the spells she knew, and he hadn’t even noticed. “Well, I’m coming with you.” 

She eyed him peripherally. Lazy contentment touched his sun kissed skin and she huffed. “Do as you wish.” 

——————

She watched Inuyasha whisper to the woman at his side as the conversations died down and humans stumbled to their huts. Her sons’s once dead children had already made their way to their home, bride and groom now. Sesshoumaru and Kagome were off somewhere in the woods and hopefully her son was not being an idiot. 

Inuyasha was difficult to look at, more difficult to hear him speak. His smile was her own hell. 

————- 

Heavy breasts swayed near her face and she caught a savory nipple between her teeth. The woman cried out as she added a third finger to her passage flicking her engorged clit with her thumb. She laughed as all seven of the kitsune’s tails waged against her naked thighs. She was working a forth finger in when the breath was stolen from her lungs. 

She did not bother to dress when she ran to the gates. She arrived in time for them to be blown open by a blast of youki as familiar to her as her own. Tōga stood beyond the path bathed in blue light. 

They had not spoken since a fight over a few decades years ago, it was a silly thing, about Sesshoumaru. Now he stood before her having the audacity to show his face only after death. Something curled inside her stomach and into her chest. 

“Tōga-“ she whispered, the thing in her chest constricting her voice. “You idiot.” His armor was broken and bloody, arrows peeked over his shoulder, burns marred his face and hands. He smiled and his eyes crinkled at the corners. 

His mouth moved but his words were lost on the other side. His hand came up to her cheek but passed through her. Taking a step she straddled the line between life and death letting one side of her rest on the distant shore. 

“I’m sorry.” He repeated now that she could hear him. 

“Do not be foolish. Tensaiga-“ the thing in her stomach clenched tighter when he shook his head, eyes sad despite the smile he still wore. 

“It is gone. Totosai has taken it to carry out my final wishes.” He had the nerve to sound contrite. And somewhat proud. He had nothing to be proud of. Death for her was a temporary thing, it could be for him as well. She fondled the heavy stone at her neck. “My body has already been taken to the underworld to be entombed.” 

She shook her head, disbelieving. This man, he had spent centuries amassing power. He was the most mighty daiyoukai walking the earth. A lowly guard, a war dog raised to great general. His death was a future concern. The thing in her chest constructed further, cooling behind her eyes, forcing tears. She would not cry, they still had a second son to make. “I still curry favor with Izanami.” 

He shook his head again and wetness burned on her high cheeks. “My second son was born this evening. I have a favor to ask of you-“ the coiling thing crushed her heart as he went on about a black pearl needing to make its way into a hanyou’s body. 

She would not lower her self to beg him to live. “You would leave this one alone? What of your first son?” She grabbed his hand. It felt hollow and light, his body becoming more and more transparent as she watched, youki slipping through her fingers. 

“Death comes for all of us eventually. It is my time.” He glanced over his shoulder at something she could not see then turned back to her, cupping her cheek. 

“Keh, as if I would do something as dull as die.” She whispered back pressing a kiss to his palm. He closed his hand around it, holding onto it like a treasure. 

He turned to walk away then. 

“Thank you.” She called to his retreating figure. He paused for a moment and cruel hope bloomed in her heart only to be ripped away. 

“I love you.” He called back over his shoulder then he was gone. 

She stepped back over the line, firmly rooted in life, and fell to her knees. Half of her was torn away as she keened her grief into the dawn. 

————- 

As the guests slowly stumbled into their huts she whispered a suggestion into the once dead boy’s sister’s ear stroking her firm thigh with a clawed hand. She turned her flushed face to her husband who raised a brow and nodded. A slow smile played across his lips and she knew a kindred spirit when she saw one. 

They rose together and with a few words to an old miko about having imbibed a little too much the old woman agreed to let their already sleeping children stay at her house for rest of the evening. With exaggerated gaits they made their way home. She waited a few moments before joining them. 

The Meidō was a heavy weight against her chest. She stroked it lovingly knowing her days as it’s master were numbered. She remembered Sesshoumaru holding a dead girl in his arms as he stepped off the path to hell. She had thought the child would be the one she gave the stone to, but she had chosen a human life. A human life for two once dead children, she chuckled to herself. Instead, it seemed, it would be a priestess who wore the touch of a god under her skin. 

It mattered not. If she was going to give up immortality for her son’s happiness she would enjoy the rest of her days. With a predatory smile she rose from the table to join the slayer and the monk.


End file.
